Why do people praise guys with long amateur careers?

[The Viper]

All I'm saying is in every other sport when a guy is good enough to go pro, they go pro. They don't stick around in college an extra 4 years to hone their skills. If you're fighting for your second world title in your second weight class in your seventh pro fight you should've been a professional years ago.

Most of the best boxers who have ever lived didn't spend half their 20's fighting in the amateurs.

I agree with this. Like you stated the cuban guys didn't really have a choice so they get a pass

[killakali]

All I'm saying is in every other sport when a guy is good enough to go pro, they go pro. They don't stick around in college an extra 4 years to hone their skills. If you're fighting for your second world title in your second weight class in your seventh pro fight you should've been a professional years ago.

Most of the best boxers who have ever lived didn't spend half their 20's fighting in the amateurs.

not true at all. Tim Duncan stayed in school 4 years, an extra 3 years when he could have easily gone pro after his freshman year. Andrew Luck and Manning stuck around for their senior years when they didn't have too. Hield could have gone pro last year but stuck around to have a monster ncaa tourney. Countless baseball players could go pro after HS but choose to go to college for mutliple seasons. Draymond Green went to college all 4 years, etc etc etc

[Lester Tutor]

Rigo has the most accredited of nearly 500 amateur bouts.

Two Gold Olympics, Two Gold Amateurs, 3 Gold World Cups, 6 time CUBAN National Gold Champ, 2 Region Gold Champ (Pan Am. & Central)

No Pro atm even comes close. The politics of Cuban pros having it hard knocks to turn Pro in the States and not have backlash back home.. Rigo is boxing's #1 unsung hero atm.

[j0zef]

To add onto what has been said, you cherry picked the Verdejo example. Actually the vast majority of top amateurs are in their mid-sometimes late 20s. Most of the people Loma has fought in his amateur career were older than him.

[Motorcity Cobra]

not true at all. Tim Duncan stayed in school 4 years, an extra 3 years when he could have easily gone pro after his freshman year. Andrew Luck and Manning stuck around for their senior years when they didn't have too. Hield could have gone pro last year but stuck around to have a monster ncaa tourney. Countless baseball players could go pro after HS but choose to go to college for mutliple seasons. Draymond Green went to college all 4 years, etc etc etc

True and you're making my point. The equivalent to Lomachenko would be if Green and Duncan stayed in school for 7 years instead of 4. A four year senior is 22 when they graduate. Imagine them staying in school until the age of 25, dominating younger players. They would be criticized and rightly so. As I said. If you're challenging for a world title in your second fight. Win a world title in your 3rd fight. Challenging for your second world title in another weight class in your 7th fight you were an amateur to long. Careful matchmaking early in your pro career can prepare you to become a world champion. That's the route most fighters take.

[Adonis Creed]

You're fighting tougher comp as a top amateur than you are in your first 15-20 pro fights usually.

[killakali]

True and you're making my point. The equivalent to Lomachenko would be if Green and Duncan stayed in school for 7 years instead of 4. A four year senior is 22 when they graduate. Imagine them staying in school until the age of 25, dominating younger players. They would be criticized and rightly so. As I said. If you're challenging for a world title in your second fight. Win a world title in your 3rd fight. Challenging for your second world title in another weight class in your 7th fight you were an amateur to long. Careful matchmaking early in your pro career can prepare you to become a world champion. That's the route most fighters take.

nah..your making my point. Duncan staying 4 years while Ben Simmons coming out after 1 year is the equivalent as Loma going to 2 olympics and turning pro at 24 like errol spence and oscar valdez as Duncan and a guy like Verdejo coming out at 19 the equivalent as Verdejo

[Box-Office]

People saying Pros competing in the Olympics is dangerous etc don't seem to realise there's fighters as good as the best Pros competing in the amateurs anyway. Lomachenko is a good example, so is Rigondeaux. "Amateur" and "Pro" has nothing to do with skill level.

Absolutely.

Top level amateurs beating up pros in sparring is not out of the ordinary

[Eff Pandas]

I definitely feel like there should be a point where being an amateur isn't doable. Or guys go to some sort of less appealing masters league after x fights, or x age or something. I mean amateur boxing would be like if you could play high school football into your late 20's on the regular. I'd have been all district for like a decade. Idk how to fix it to be honest, but clearly its a lil odd & unique to sports & imo a problem although I'm sure many would disagree & fair enough.

[GoldenGloveLove]

There is so much wrong with the foundation of your thinking. Wow.