ATG fights before they were greats

[Steak]

odd sort of title, but this is what Im getting at: What is a fight between two ATGs/HOFers before they were well known or had not become world champions?

example: 18 year old Roberto Duran vs 22 year old Ernesto Marcel. Two of Panama's best fighters of all time just happened to meet up at 130lbs in 1970.

no one really knew who they were at the time, but Duran would claim the lightweight crown about 2 years later(going on to become one of the best fighters of all time) and Marcel would end up becoming featherweight champ about 2 years later as well(going on to be one of the few people to have beaten the great Alexis Arguello)

get the drift?

[BennyST]

odd sort of title, but this is what Im getting at: What is a fight between two ATGs/HOFers before they were well known or had not become world champions?

example: 18 year old Roberto Duran vs 22 year old Ernesto Marcel. Two of Panama's best fighters of all time just happened to meet up at 130lbs in 1970.

no one really knew who they were at the time, but Duran would claim the lightweight crown about 2 years later(going on to become one of the best fighters of all time) and Marcel would end up becoming featherweight champ about 2 years later as well(going on to be one of the few people to have beaten the great Alexis Arguello)

get the drift?

That's certainly about as perfect an example as you could get and very rare.

What about Hiroyuki Ebihara vs Fighting Harada. Both fought when they were something like 10-0 each. Harada won the decision.

[Steak]

heres another:

Oscar Larios vs Israel Vasquez 1.

they met for the first time in 1997 when they were 19 years old, with Larios losing.
Larios would go on to win a super bantamweight belt, picking it up after beating none other than Izzy Vasquez. They would fight once again years later, with Vasquez taking Larios' belt.

who would have thought theyd end up running into each other as world class fighters after more or less randomly fighting as teenagers?

[BennyST]

Eder Jofre and Ernesto Miranda. Both young, inexperienced and they drew both fights together. They would fight again some years later for the Argentine title and Jofre would win obviously before going on to amazing things.

[blaze778]

For amateurs:

Taylor beat Pavlik in the amateurs, I believe it was the Olympic trials.

Tarver beat Jones Jr. as kids in the amateurs.

Kostya Tszyu beat Vernon Forrest.

Berto beat Bradley.

They didnt actually fight, but Tyson and Lewis sparred in the amateur days. So did Mosley and De la Hoya, and Oscar also sparred with Chavez.

So many others, it's just getting late and I am tired.

[BennyST]

Another few were during the Flyweight greats era of recently.

Sot Chitlada and Jung Koo Chang fought early on in their careers, as did Hilario Zapata and Jung Koo Chang. As did Sot Chitlada and Yong Kim Kang.

Muangchai Kittikasem and Michael Carbajal fought very early on too. ****, that whole era fought each other.

Fenech fought Zaragoza when he was about 12-0 and Zaragoza was about 22-1 with his one loss to being to Happy Lora who was also only about 15-0.

[Barn]

Depends if you count Lewis and Bowe as ATG.
Only one I can think of that has not been mentioned.

[NChristo]

Most obvious amateurs choice would be Robinson vs Pep, guessing you only want pro fights though.

[Barn]

Most obvious amateurs choice would be Robinson vs Pep, guessing you only want pro fights though.

Never heard of that who won?

[Barn]

Never heard of that who won?

Oops forgot Robinson was unbeaten in the amatuers which is an amazing feat in itself.