How good would Mario Kindelan have been as a pro?

The guy won pretty much every event as an amatuer with ease. he beat Kotelnik easily in 2000 in Sydney to win the gold in the olympics and in 2004 beat Amir Khan.

He was never able to defect from Cuba and hence was never able to launch a professional career.

Typical for athletes from Cuba, where professional sport is prohibited, his reward is pride in representing his people on the Olympic stage. He said, of being offered $1 million to compete professionally, "I thanked them, but money cannot buy what I have."


here are his accolades

• 1998 World Cup Champion
• 1999 Pan-American Games Champion
• 1999 World Champion
• 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist
• 2001 World Champion
• 2003 World Champion
• 2003 Pan-American Games Champion
• 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist

How good do you think he could have been?

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Pretty damn good you would have thought! But having been an amateur for so long, maybe he would have found it hard to adjust to the pro game?

 

Would have sliced up some mediocre opposition so easily everyone would have been gushing at the vag over him...after that who knows..you really can't say.

Just like Savon, just like Stevenson, just like Saitov etc etc

 

I think he would have been class, but with top amateurs in the pro game you just never know, completely different sports.

 

yeah . I mean the thing with him is he never even tried to get out of cuba. from what ive seen he looked pretty damn complete but you cant really tell at the amatuer level. Kidcubano and all my other cuban brethren, what do you guys think?

 

its hard to tell really. trouble is, as good as kindelan was, he spent his whole career as a guy with the skills of a pro, stuck at amatuer, picking off younger, inexperienced opposition.....i know its impressive he did it for so long, but also easy to see how it was achieved.

 

I'm pretty sure they gave him a nice retirement gift to lose to Khan in that silly rematch.

As for his career who knows, just another very good amateur outpointing far less experienced kids for most of his career. Hard to say how he would have fared as a pro.

 

I would like to say he wulda bn a gr8 pro but in all honesty its too difficult to tell...

 

He perfected the amateur style but I don't know if he'd have been able to make the adjustments needed to have the same level of success in the pro's.

He wasn't someone like Gamboa, whose style translates well to the pro's and I think he would've had to defect pretty early on before his style became so entrenched in him.

With his skill level, you're always going to have some success but I don't think he'd have been a P4P type guy. I think he'd have had a similar level of success to someone like Diosbelys Hurtado.

 

he beat like everyone in the amateurs! inc Diego Corrales amongst others.

 

There won't be a more accurate answer than this even if the thread goes on for 200 pages.

 

:yep im a big amir khan-fan etc BUT THAT FIGHT WAS A FIX!!!!! :twisted:

 

amateur and pro is almost like 2 completely different sports.

 

They literally couldn't have made it clearer that it was a fix. Hyped it up massively on ITV, "This is Khan's last bout as an amateur...can he revenge his loss in the Olympics? :think Can he beat the great Kindelan? :huh"

Kindelan wasn't performing even close to what he could (on purpose obviously)...and he still made it competitive. Kindelan was a different league to Khan (and Khan was a quality amateur)...and it showed whenever they fought legitimately.

 

I never saw the kindela and amir khan fight before he went pro. kindelan seems happy with his decision and i guess at the end of the day thats all that matters for him.