Meldrick Taylor Taylor, one of many boxing champions hailing from the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, learned his craft in the gyms of his hometown and posted a 99-4 record as an amateur fighter. In 1984, Taylor earned a spot on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team at the age of 17, and claimed the gold medal in the featherweight division. Following his victory, he joined the professional ranks. [edit] Olympic Results 1st round bye Defeated Nicolae Talpos (Romania) 5-0 Defeated Francisco Camacho (Mexico) 5-0 Defeated John Wanjau (Kenya) RSC 3 Defeated Omar Catari (Venezuela) 5-0 Defeated Peter Konyegwachie (Nigeria) 5-0
Not sure how accurate that is, but its interesting none the less. (source: http://www.saddoboxing.com/boxingforum/170557-post1.html)
Out of all the names that had amateur sucess, Jeff Lacy stand out to me. Not because of his big decline since getting school by Calzaghe, but just because of his style. Amateur boxing has turned into a pitty pat contest where volume and a little bit of accuracy seems to win most fights. Neither of which have been Lacy's game even with his pro sucess. Was Jeff a different style of fighter in the ammies?
Yeah I was about to say the same thing. At least with Jermain Taylor, he throws a bunch of punches and overall is pretty accurate so that style would have worked and did work. Unless Lacy was stretching people left and right, but then we would have heard way more about him that we did before he came out of the Olympics. That 221 fights he had may be a large part of the reason that he looks shot already.
(1) Bullshit. (2) Correct. (3) Lacy had the same style and was moderately successful with it. Similar to his pro results.
Ricardo Lopez lost in the ams? Not according to what I've read many times. Strange to point out losing to Eddie Hopson in the ams as being noteworthy. Hopson's style is very conducive to am success.
What about Karl the beast Hegman. From all the reports I've read I heard he complied a record of 1000-0. The greatest ammy of all-time baby. I'll Holla 5000
The info on Mosley vs Johnston was incorrect. Johnston has an ammy win over Shane at some point and I"m not sure but I think they fought 3 not 2xs. Also they focus on Shane losing to some bad dude but anyone can lose at some point to bums. Besides who's to say how Shane was feeling that day.
If Joel Julio was undefeated, he would have been in the olympics, getting press for coasting in the pan am games, etc... John Scully has written some great stuff on the amateurs at Max. His most recent one goes in depth on Mark Breland. He discusses how it's impossible for someone to have an amazing amateur record while being a nobody.
It's not just because it's Mosley, I'd do the same for anyone. Most of these guys amateur fights were so long ago and not videoed that it's kind of unfair to rip anyone who suffered a loss against someone without knowing the full specifics. Since even the people who wrote this likely weren't there either what gives them the right to say shit like that? All they're likely doing is spouting off guys records and commenting on them.
