Pro fighters with no amateur experience

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Hasim Rahman and Rocky Marciano had like 10-20 amateur fights.

Lennox, Ali, Byrd, and Wlad, on the other hand, had TONS

[nozorok]

Amateur experience helps a great deal with ironing the kinks and developing solid boxing fundamentals. Look at the records of some of these guys and see how it translated in the pros.

Oscar dela Hoya 223-5
Shane Mosley 220-12
Kostya Tszyu 259-11
Floyd Mayweather Jr. 86-4
Zab Judah 110-5
Miguel Cotto 125-23
Joan Guzman 310-10
Wlad Klitschko 134-6

Then you have people like:

Margarito 18-3
Librado Andrade 2-16

Anyone see a trend here?

[Oriachim]

Point is, people with the more succesful amatuer careers are going to get noticed at the earliest point of there career by like the promoters. People without so great amateur careers have to work hard in the pros to get noticed.

[Foodie One]

What about Tye "Big Sky" Fields.

[ironalex]

julio casar chavez sr had none.
anthony mundine had none.
quawi muhammed had none.
billy conn had none
julio casar chavez jr had none
omar chavez apprntly had none
ricardo lopez had very few
tyson had like 27
margarito had 21
leija had 28
peter quillin had 8 i think
ricardo lopez son had very few..
tye feilds had 1 or none
roberto duran had very few...
anymore?

[ironalex]

o btw not forgetting archie moore who had 9 and marciano who had like 11-12 (7-4)(8-4)? a lot of south american fighters skip the amateur system specifically mexicans...

[Squabbles94806]

The amateurs are only to groom the up and coming boxers. The ones who stay in the amateurs for a while and become known in the amateur world, have a higher successful percentage rate at becoming a prize fighter.

Anyone can become a professional fighter. It'd be bad business to get in the fight game with no experience though.

Most guys who become pros without being groomed in the amateur ranks will probably never make it to the million dollar mainstream bracket.

Unless a miracle happens like Cinderella man.

When a fighter makes it to the big time, they have to dig into his past to find out who he is...so the fans can relate. If a boxer's never been to the olympics, hardly had any amateur fights, doesn't compete in tournaments, not known in the amateur world, chances are people will never hear of him.

There's hundreds maybe thousands of pros that no-one has ever heard about.
But nonetheless, they're still professionals getting paid to fight.

[Burner]

Paul Williams.

[ICEMAN JOHN SCULLY]

Iron Alex....people SEVERELY underestimate Tyson's amateur career...Mike was a national champion, won some big tournaments, fought internationally, and beat some of the top amateurs in the USA in his amateur career.

[black.ink]

I read somewhere Roberto Duran only had like 13 or 14 amateur fights. Don't know if this is true or not.