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What are some that are worth learning from, past and present
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If you are talking about the middleweight division in amateur boxing, you can find a lot of good fighters trough history.
Laszlo Papp: Three times olympic champion (once in middleweight), he was a southpaw, short for the weight with a beautiful technique, speed and power, really good fighter too study because he head strong fundamentals, sadly the footage of him, while available, isn't in the best quality.
Floyd Patterson: Olympic champion at 17 and future heavyweight champion, besides his greatness in the pro ranks, he was a really good amateur, fast hands and power, olympic champ at 17 and good to study with a great textbook style.
Valeri Popenchenko: Val Barker winner and olympic champion, sadly there isn't much footage of him or any others soviet greats, but you can find some clips and documentaries to learn about his style.
Vyacheslav Lemeshev: Olympic champion, you can find a couple of his fights, he fought with a style that looked similar to the one used by the great Teofilo Stevenson, he was a huge puncher, a really scary one, not the best to study unless you have the same kind of power, good to watch his counters and jab.
Michael Spinks: He had a good run when he won the olympic gold, showing mostly his good power and some flashes of the skill that made him a great fighter in the pros, there is good footage of him to study.
Jose Gomez: Olympic champion, a huge puncher with great skills, sadly, there isn't much footage of him.
Ariel Hernandez: Two times olympic champ, he was arguably the best amateur middleweight in history, sadly he was kinda lazy and missed a chance to become three time olympic champion, there is available footage of him, not much but there is, he was a backfoot fighter with elite talent, fast hands, excellent footwork, movement, skills and even good power, but he was an elite talent of the kind that can't be copied in the gym, you can watch some tricks of him tho, but he didn't have good inside boxing skills by the way.
Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov: Olympic champion and silver medalist in the previous edition (lost to Jorge Gutierrez, another fighter that you can study), he had that russian style, but was really good at it, with a really nice lead hand and good skills.
James DeGale: Now a top pro, and olympic champion in the division, he has the best run in the olympic middleweight tournament, a really skilled but kinda lazy switch hitter with great skills and talent, you can study him and some of his tricks, but he is a really unorthodox boxer.
There are also fighters that didn't won the olympics but were great:
Angel Espinosa: The best middleweight in the history of amateur boxing, sadly he lacks the olympic gold, but he was one of the most talented boxers in the history of the sport, a southpaw with one punch ko power and great skills, there isn't much footage of him, but you can find some clips and fights of him past his prime.
Gennady Golovkin: Silver olympic medalist, amateur world champion (and pro of course), his run at the 2003 world championships is one of the most impressive i've seen, with wins over Lucian Bute, Andy Lee, Matvey Korobov and Yordanis Despaigne, all in the same tournament, the good thing about GGG are that there is plenty of amateur footage of him, and that he also won his fights without much athleticism but with lots of skill.
Matvey Korobov: Between 2005-2007, he was considered the best amateur in the world, he was just dominating, a talented and skilled fighter that also had power, two times world champion in the amateurs.
From the recent boxers 2011-2016, i would recommend you to study (there is plenty of footage of them:
Ievghen Khytrov: A great puncher that also used great skills to win the fights despite his lack of raw athleticism, a world amateur champion that was #1 seed in the olympics and was robbed there.
Arlen Lopez: The current olympic champion and world champion, a switch hitter that is also the hardest puncher in amateur boxing, with great skills and timing, the #1 in the world.
Bektimir Melekuziev: A p4p talent that is a silver medalist at the olympics and the world championships (losing both times against Lopez) he is huge puncher, a strong fighter with great counters, speed, great footwork and movement and skills, but can be kinda unpolished and awkward with that uzbek boxing style.Last edited by yngwie; 12-16-2016, 02:04 AM. -
I have around 12 fights of Ariel Hernandez, that's enough footage to study him.
DeGale didn't robbed Correa at all, Correa was even wobbled in that fight, i never heard of anyone claiming that Correa lost that fight by the way, and the cuban fanboys are really good at calling robbery at any close fight, but that fight wasn't a disputed decision, and he also had wins over the current val barker winnner and olympic champion, Artayev and the talented boxers Darren Sutherland and Shawn Estrada in that same tournament.
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