I've Never Been Very Familiar With The Happenings or History of Amateur Boxing, Mostly Due To The Fact That It's......Amateur Boxing..... But I've Been Wondering... Who Accomplished The Most Significant Feats While Equipped With The Headgear and Oversized Gloves Of Novice Pugilists??????
That Cuban guy who was gonna fight Ali for the championship in his first fight. Although Ali was fighting the likes of Leon Spinks and such at the time so maybe not, they were probably just looking for a promotional angle to avoid real challengers.
Joe Frazier was an olympic champ... but didnt originally make the onlypic team. He was a replacement for Buster Mathis. He was good like a lo tof people were good but Breland, he was DOMINANT. Savon was like teo in that he stayed amateur for a LONG time and beat a lot of young americans. Savon scored some wicked wins (Briggs, Tua, Golota, Mercer, etc) BUT he also lost a lot of figths, and was stopped by KO against a fellow Cuban on more than one occasion
Stevenson was a great amateur but... he lost many fights in international meets and was stopped at least once by a Russian. He won three golds because he never went pro. Mark would have won as many golds as he liked, too. Teo didnt DOMINATE like Mark did.
NOBODY dominated an amateur boxing weigth class like MARK BRELAND did in the early 1980's at 147.
And also, be ASSURED, the gloves in amateur boxing are not exactly pillows, the headgear prevent cuts and I have seen many AWESOME KNOCKOUTS in amateur boxing. It is a dangerous game, dont make a mistake thinking it is childs play or something. And Breland also boxed in international events where no headgear was even used back when they still allowed that
Felix Savon, That Was His Name.... He Was Beast
thats the one
in cuba boxin is the national sport, my mate went on holiday there and managed to blag his way into a gym to spar (he's a proper fitness freak cage fighter) and said even the little kids are technically proficient. was only there for 2 weeks and ended up on good terms with the fella who owned the gym. me mate said the talent there, across all weight divisions, is incredible
definately gonna be one of the cubans. i know mario kindelan was a legend and theres a heavyweight (savon?) who was quality. theres probably loads more i dont know
Don't Most Cuban Amateurs Fight In The Amateur Ranks For Their Entire Career???
They are not allowed to go pro, it sucks for them. The ones that have defected have had some modest success or have been champions; Hurtado,JC Gomez and CasaMayor. Then there are bad fighters like JL Gonzalez that fought R.Bowe and R.Garbey who was a cruiser that never made any noise.