Why did Teofilo Stevenson never go pro?

I found a few interviews but they never really directly asked him and they never got a solid answer

he answered something like - forget the money, i wanted to fight the best of my time.

coming from his background one would think he would definitely want to go pro. with his huge following and hero status in Cuba he could have magnified his legend by fighting the top pro heavyweights

 

They didn't allow professional sports in Cuba. It would mean going to fight for US dollars and abandoning socialist Cuba for the enemy country.
Stevenson loved his country and I think he had socialist principles.

 

aaaah yeah i didn't think about that whole political situation

 

Some famous quotes have been attributed to Stevenson as to his version of why he didn't turn pro. Probably his favourite was:

“What is a million dollars? Against eight million Cubans who love me?”

Further reasoning from Stevenson about why he didn't turn pro:

“I didn’t need the money because it was going to mess up my life,” he told The Tribune in 2003. “For professional boxers, the money is a trap. You make a lot of money, but how many boxers in history do we know that died poor? The money always goes into other people’s hands.”

 

Plan and simple, Commie BS! Spare me the Socialist 'shangra-la".
Interesting that Castro had a special event, inviting several Latin athletes to Havana for a get together, in the mid-70's (I think). The invitees included Roberto Duran. His camp told him ahead of time to not get into any political discussions with Castro. Fidel considered Duran one of his favorites and, after a nice dinner (screw the rest of the Cuban poor) took Roberto aside and asked him how he thought a proposed Ali-Stevenson match would turn out to which Duran responded: "Don't be silly, Ali would kill him!" Fidel walked out of the room.

 

I'm sure that would have been Duran's honest assessment too, and obviously not what Castro wanted to hear.

 

Why is Cuba communist?

 

He felt his legacy would be better left as it was, built on the defeat of very young and underdeveloped amateurs instead of being known as the cuban standout who was brutally koed by all the top contenders he faced ala Jorge Luis Gonzalez.
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Stevenson would have been an all time great heavyweight professional boxer in my opinion.

Stevenson was a special talent. 6'4, long, terrific left jab, had perhaps one of the greatest right hands in boxing history, had that joe louis special kind of power/finishing ability. He could hit hard with both hands, tremendous finisher, had slick boxing skills. In my opinion he would have been an extremely difficult opponent for Larry Holmes in the late 70s with his size, reach, right hand, and left jab. Stevenson vs Holmes would have been an all time classic.

 

Stevenson was light years ahead of Gonzalez in ability.
He belonged to a communist country that is why he never turned pro- as was the case with many of the Soviet fighters produced during the era.

 

His quote about highly-paid professional boxers always ending up broke is fairly accurate. It's hardly Commie propaganda.

And there's nothing wrong with him staying in his country, with the people who love him.
3 gold medals. The man's a legend.

 

A very big question in only 4 words!

 

this post just cracked me right up :thumbsup

 

Theree was no incentive for him to do so,he enjoyed a privileged ,comfortable lifestyle and hero status at home .

People tend to forget he dropped a few decisions in tournaments other than the Olympics, and could be off his game at times.
I don't think he would have done particularly well in the pro ranks, neither do I think he was a come from behind winning fighter.Dynamite right hand puncher though.

 

Impossible to say how he would have done as a pro.
Given his status in Cuba he was politically in no position to turn pro.