does a fighter consider the olympic gold or winning a world title the pinacle of his career,,olympic purists would probably favour the former,i myself tend to agree especially with the amount of belts around nowadays,an olympic gold is a once in a lifetime, belts are ten a penny(if your good enough that is)!!
also should a fighters amateur career be taken into consideration when assessing his greatness and legacy,kosta tszyu schooled guys like vernon forrest in his: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEV9dyIYwI4
in my oppinion without a doubt,the amateur career is all to often overlooked.
Whitaker also considers winning the gold the best moment of his career.
He should be very proud of that accomplishment because he's one of the few from that "record setting" American team that actually deserved to take home the gold during that wonderful exhibition of amatuer boxing corruption at it's finest.
Guys like Salvador Sanchez and Julio Cesar Chavez were great, great pros. Amateurs, different story.
Along those lines, some fighters don't even compete in the Olympics and amateurs.
I don't take amateur boxing into consideration when assessing fighters all-time.
I'd rank them separately.
Mark Breland was a great, great amateur, maybe one of the greatest American amateurs ever (my knowledge of the amateurs is rather general and not too deep), but was never reached greatness as a pro.
Guys like Salvador Sanchez and Julio Cesar Chavez were great, great pros. Amateurs, different story.
Both amateur and olympic scoring are not the same as the pros, thus are 100% irrelevant when talking about legacies. While I think they're good talking points about a young fighters and nice to reflect along and get experience from.... in terms of what they're good for, nothing.
Also, the very fact that they're fighting in the amateurs is why they're called the amateurs. Pre-season Football doesn't count towards a team's regular season record, or else it wouldn't be pre-season.
nowadays, I think Olympic Gold, I think Audley Harrison.
Lol yeah right..no i'd say world title are more important than olimpic medals today.
as for amater they should be counted for something and considered but not essential.
Forrest was very young at the time that he fought Tsyzu in the amatuers. It was another Taylor/Pavlik situation where one fighter is in his twenties and fighting a teenager that didn't have much experience. I take nothing away from Tsyzu though, he is a legend at 140 LBS and a hall of famer i would expect.
Lennox Lewis and Holyfield consider the olympics to be the
more important because for holyfield it was fighting for his country
to lewis it was a pedigree ... he thinks you earn your stripes
by winning the olympics .. thats why he didn't respect tyson
that much ... he noted Ali, Frazier and all the other greats
all went to the olympics , if you just got off the streets
and put on the gloves, to lennox lewis you were in a lower class ...
i gotta agree with lennox,,good post