We all agree that the amateur game and the pro ranks have become increasingly distant over the past decades, so much so that they are almost entirely different sports. However, if you look at the boxers that participated in the 2004 Olympics you notice that a lot of them are now regarded as future P4P entrants - names such as Ward, Dirrell, Gamboa, Lopez and Khan. Two names that really surprised me were Angulo and Aydin, given their pro styles I did not expect either to have being successful amateurs yet both were good enough to qualify for the Olympics. Titleholders Selcuk Aydin Andre Berto Yuriorkis Gamboa Gennady Golovkin Amir Khan Juan Manuel Lopez Jean Pascal Beibut Shumenov Vitali Tajbert Andre Ward Ring Top 10 ranked fighters Alfredo Angulo Andre Dirrell Abner Mares Vanes Martirosyan Alexander Povetkin Non-Ring ranked former titleholders/challengers Alexander Alexeev Karoly Balzsay Zsolt Bedak Willy Blain Vicente Escobedo Benoit Gaudet Ali Ismailov Alexey Kuziemski Jamie Pittman Carlos Tamara Notable others Yordanis Despaigne Felix Diaz Yoan Pablo Hernandez Andy Lee Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam Guillermo Rigondeaux Odlanier Solis Carlos Velazquez How good will the crop of 2008 turnout?
I want to hear more about Felix Diaz. Read an article from over the pond praising him to high heaven but not seen him fight yet. Great research btw ishy, I was aware of the obvious ones but yeah, I didnt realise that all of those were at 2004.
Funny thing is you see some of them guys who have belts didn't have great Olympics, But there more suited to pro game as we all know the AM's is like tiddlywinks. A fantastic crop, none to sure about the new crop from Bejing.
As long as they're wearing gloves and throwing punches the Olympics are always going to produce some of the best talent regardless of that style differential between the pros and ams. Nearly everyone worth a **** fights as an amateur these days and the Olympics reperesents the cream of the crop so it stands to reason they should do well and I think it'll continue that way. There will always be exceptions, people that don't have much of an amateur career, or sucked as an amateur and do well as a pro, or people like Audley, but generally speaking.
I think as much as anything this just demonstrates their dedication to the sport. Its not so much about their style, they just in general work harder than the rest!!!
There are clearly exceptions to the rule either way, but the Olympics still clearly provide far more than a steady stream of talent into the pro game. Still, don't forget though, that some of these boxers, post Olympic success, are mollycoddled to at least some sort of pro success. Huge amounts of money is spent on them by the top promoters, who want a return for their investment: so unless they are shockingly bad in the pro game, these 'investments' at lest will do reasonably OK fighting very carefully hand picked opposition, whilst being fast tracked to ABC success. How good these boxers really are is another matter. Still, all in all, yea, the Olympics still play a big part in the game, I agree, and only time will tell how the 2008 lot turn out.
