In 1976 American fight promoters offered Stevenson the amount of five million dollars to challenge world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in his first professional bout. Teofilo refused, asking "What is one million dollars compared to the love of eight million Cubans?" Any prediction on this fantazy fight?
Pretty certain Ali would have murdered him. If Tefeollio had a few years to develop into a pro, you're talking a different situation though. He had allot of natural ability.
Amateur accomplishments are literally meaningless when judging professional boxing absolutely, positively meaningless but, as hut said, if he had actually gotten in there with Ali, he would have been beaten soundly
no there isnt especially among heavyweights Tyrell Biggs... brilliant amateur... crap pro Duane Bobick, great amateur, had a win over Stevenson and kicked Larry Holmes' ass... crap pro Jorge Luis Gonzalez, great amateur, beat Bowe and Lewis... utter garbage as a pro Henry Tillman Fraudley Harrison ... 'nuff said Pete Rademacher, Boone Kirkman, Buster Mathis Sr, Tony Tubbs, Michael Bentt, DaVarryl Williamson, Lawrence Clay-Bey, Dominic Guinn of the guys mentioned, all had highly accomplished amateur careers, some of them had legendary amateur careers... of the 13 men mentioned above, as professionals they combined to win ONE LEGITIMATE BELT (Tubbs, who won and promptly lost the WBA 1/3 of the heavyweight title) you could be the greatest amateur ever and be a non-entity as a pro, it has happened 100s of times... I'd dare say it has happened far more often than the reverse
Lennox Lewis, Wlad Klitschko, Riddick Bowe, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Muhammed Ali, Chris Byrd, Alexander Povetkin, Evander Holyfield, David Haye A meaningful correlation. Talent doesn't = success, speed doesn't = success, nothing = success. Meaningful correlations though.:Thumbs:
Good post. There have been many, many accomplished amateur heavies who made little to no impact on the heavyweight division in the pros.
Lewis, Bowe, Wlad, all olympic finalists. Chris Byrd, Povetkin, Mercer, Holyfield, Haye, Ibragimov, Golota, Vitali, Tua all Olympic or World Championship medalists. You'd be quicker naming guys who became top 5 ranked heavyweights the last 15 years that weren't prestigious amateurs. To say there's 'no connection' is basically flat out wrong, it's as good a predictor of pro success as any other factor. A guarantor? No? A very useful predictor, yes.
steve, do us a favour, just stop responding to my posts on this subject. I really like you, kissy kissy long time, and I want it to stay that way It's like when you find something a bird you love does that really annoys you. This subject is your toenail chewing/snort laugh/farting in bed.
:: You're a dear friend, Hut. I can't, however, promise that I won't post what I want, when I want. Sometimes I just can't help myself. Don't take it personally, you're my boy.
This was the subject of boxing magazine covers back in the day, but we all knew there was no way it was ever gonna happen. Ali was the biggest athlete, the biggest name in the entire world then circa 75-78, and Stevenson ruled amateur boxing.
