Who were boxing's greatest prodigies? Easy picks of Benitez, Tyson, Patterson, Al McCoy, Pipino Cuevas... What are the more difficult ones, perhaps guys who didn't become champs.
Greg Page, Mark Breland, Howard Davis Jr, SRL, Edwin Rosario, Hector Camacho. There's a few from my era to kick it off. Varying results for them.
Jung Koo Chang. Fighting Harada. Tony Canzoneri. Terry McGovern. I feel Billy Conn was super young when he started making some noise but I don't feel like checking. As for guys that weren't champions, ugh. Nipper Pat Daly. Baby Arizmendi. Langford beat Gans as a teen right?
Filipino fighter Morris East from island of Cebu turned pro at 15 and became world champion at 19 years 31 days. His ko of Akinobu Hiranaka 1992 was ring ko of the year when winning the WBA Super lightweight title.
Francisco Bojado was touted as the next boxing superstar at 17. Meldrick Taylor was an olympic champion at 17. Muhammad Ali was an olympic champion at 18. Floyd Patterson was an olympic champion at 17. Mike Tyson was making noise at 15 and at 20 was already a world champion. Wilfred Benitez was world champion at 17. I believe Pipino Cuevas was champion at 18. I read lots of things about Todd Hickman and Bernard Mays; Hickman was winning international titles and beating future olympic champions at 15, he was considered the future of boxing when he was in the same tournaments as Tyson, Holyfield and Whitaker; Mays was a natural from what i read, the best boxer that ever came from the Kronk gym, he almost made Tommy Hearns quit boxing, sadly, both Mays and Hickman were with the wrong people and ended dead. I read that Edwin Rosario was an excellent teenage boxer. There was a guy called Hector Carrasquilla, he used to be a great teenage boxer. Oscar Dela Hoya had huge success even at 15 years old, the boxing experts were calling him the future of boxing. Robeisy Ramirez is a double olympic champion at 22. Joanys Argilagos is a world amateur champion and olympic bronze at 19. Angel Herrera Vera was a two time olympic champion at 22.
Fighting Harada was flyweight champ at 19 and bantamweight champ at 22. Lionel Rose was 19 when he beat Harada.
