Amateur Records

[jabsRstiff]

You are right about Breland as an amateur..when he was on network TV on the weekends it was like a big fight involving a top pro... I mean, his New York City GG title win was shown on ABC!! Back then the top amateurs were STARS and Mark scored some wicked knockouts along the way.

John....

I remember they were trying to hype up a kid named Ron Essett. They ran a story on him in Bert Sugar's Boxing Illustrated, & his peple claimed he was the biggest hitting amateur out there.
I was pretty psyched when I tuned into an ABC show, & saw that Essett would be facing Breland. Breland knocked him out, I think in the second round.
That was just an amateur fight, with no kind of title or tourney on the line.

Damn....I'm almost tearing up, thinking back to those days !
"USA vs. The World In Amateur Boxing"....."Sugar Ray Leonard's Golden Gloves".....
Seeing chubby lil' Craig Payne upsetting Teo Stevenson....
Steve McCrory, Paul Gonzalez, the Canadians- DeWitt & O'Sullivan...

[GEOFFHAYES]

Ron Essett was disgraceful against Eubank in that open-air event (pro), he was intimidated by Eubank's presence and too scared to throw a punch.

I heard Essett came very close to making the Olympic team though in '84, only losing close decisions to Frank Tate and Virgil Hill at Olympic Trials - both went on to win Olympic Gold's.

[jabsRstiff]

Ron Essett was disgraceful against Eubank in that open-air event (pro), he was intimidated by Eubank's presence and too scared to throw a punch.

I heard Essett came very close to making the Olympic team though in '84, only losing close decisions to Frank Tate and Virgil Hill at Olympic Trials - both went on to win Olympic Gold's.

Considering Breland, Tate, & Hill were all in different weight classes......that just doesn't sound right. You're talking about about a leap through several weight classes, in a very short time.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Ron is a good friend of mine and was a GOOD puncher. He won the North American title in 1983 at 147 and he also won the National Golden Gloves in 1984 at 156 pounds with a decision in the finals over future world champ William Guthrie. At 147 he was stopped by Breland.

[GEOFFHAYES]

What was wrong with him against Eubank? Was he depressed or something or ill? That was honestly embarassing - Eubank was awful (even ridiculous) when he had to looking for an opponent, and Essett just ran away alnight and barely threw anything so it made for a terrible fight.

[jack_the_rippuh]

What was wrong with him against Eubank? Was he depressed or something or ill? That was honestly embarassing - Eubank was awful (even ridiculous) when he had to looking for an opponent, and Essett just ran away alnight and barely threw anything so it made for a terrible fight.

Billy "The Preacher" Graham worships satan.

[Phantasm]

Gotta remember....
Savon & Stevenson were full grown men KOing guys around the 20 year-old mark.

You are absolutely right. Forgot to consider that. Same thing with lots of the russian fighters...the cuban and russian fighters had tons of amateur experience. However, I do know that there was much hype about Stevenson and he was relatively young during that time.

Shame how our amateur program has gotten so bad.

[Jim_Davis]

Rocky Marciano (9-4)

LOL

Good old Rocky.

[RockyMarcianofan00]

Don't know if anyone pointed this out yet but Marciano's amateur record was 8-4 not 9-4

not that it makes a beg difference

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

I was 57-13 as an amateur with 12 stoppages from 1983 to 1988... I kept my amateur record EXACTLY ...I have every detail... names, places, dates, venues, everything. My best year statistically was 1987 when I went 17-1 (with the lone loss coming in the finals of the 1987 National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions