Duran, Chavez, Canelo...

Duran, Chavez, and Canelo are the only three guys I can think who reached the level of consensus P4P #1 without having a notable amateur career.

I was thinking Pac could make this list, but Pac was on the Philippine national boxing team, and was more successful as an amateur than these three.

Any one else you can think of who fits here?

 

Hopkins? He had a good record but don't recall anybody mentioning anything notable about him regarding his amateur career. Not all that surprising being he lost his first pro fight.

 

Hopkins is a good one.

I think Arguello is worth mentioning, even I don't think Alexis was ever considered the P4P #1. Close enough.

Arguello had a good amateur career at 58-2, but it wasn't a notable amateur career or anything.

 

What was Gomez's amateur career like?

 

Gomez was an excellent amateur. He doesn't apply here.

 

I doubt Chocolatito had much of an international level amateur career

 

I remember reading Hopkins had nearly 100 amateur fights and that he won a couple of tournaments too. Not sure at what level it was at exactly though

 

Nope, Choco doesn't apply. I had to look it up.

He won a Gold at the Central American Championship in 04.

 

I'm guessing he didn't look particularly impressive in a "that guy is going places" kind of way. Perhaps that combined with his time in prison didn't have managers lining up.

 

Ok, if that counts then the group of suitable names can't be big.

What about Monzon?

 

Monzon was never considered the P4P #1 in his era, Duran was.

But if we broaden it, then yeah we can include him.

Monzon had a solid, but unremarkable amateur career.

 

Carlos Zarate only had like 36 amateur fights

 

Good one! You might have identified the 4th guy here.

Prior to the Gomez loss, Zarate was considered by some as the P4P #1. So yes, he fits.

 

Felix Trinidad had no notable amateur career that I would know of and he was for a short while the consensus #1 or very close to it

 

Yeah, he had a stellar amateur - he won a gold medal at the Central American Games in 1974 at bantam. The only obvious black spot on his amateur record I think was getting knocked out in the first round in his first bout at the Munich Olympics in 1972 - but he was only 15 at the time.

 

Yeah, Tito is a good one.

 

I think it was Derrick Holmes who knocked him out in the amateurs.

Gomez would have his revenge on Holmes in the pros.

 

wtf did they not have weight classes for amateur fights back then?

 

The only thing I knew of Gomez's amateur career was the that he basically beat the fuck out of Benitez.

 

Ohhh. I actually did not know that.

Not surprising. I'm sure Will was only a baby, and his body was still developing.

 

Probably an added incentive to work on your defense after getting smacked around by Bazooka.

 

Yeah, there's only two years between them but there's a helluva lot of difference between a 12 year old and 14 year old (for instance).

 

Marciano had a shit amateur career that involved him getting DQ'd in fights because he was gassing from smoking 2 packs of Camels a day, so he put the head in to get out of it.

8-4 was his record.............. it might be the shortest worst amateur career of any "great" fighter.

 

Plus, some clown on secondsout (Super Tainto) claims he KO'd Tito in the 11th round in the amateurs.

11th round in an amateur fight.

 

Was that Jolex Del Peeeeelar?

 

No. Some delusional Puerto Rican dude.

Alabama Man told some tall tales but nothing that fucked up.

 

That doesn't beat Esk famously claiming he could beat Tito.

 

I thought you were linking their styles together when I initially read the title. Canelo does use quite a few similar tactics to Duran. Although, Duran used about every high level technique in boxing history, so you can always find similarities.

 

There's things every offensive fighter since Duran has borrowed from Duran.

What separates Duran from Canelo in a P4P sense is that Duran was phenomenally athletic, and Canelo isn't.

That, and Duran's stamina was 10x better.

 

I'll tell you.........Canelo has underrated handspeed, that quick uppercut. I was shocked at how fast he could throw and land it- and to devestating effect.

But he's a squarer., chunkier man than Duran, with an obvious cost to his overall athleticism.