Olympic Gold medalist. Fought Floyd Patterson in his FIRST pro fight. How the hell was this allowed to happen ?
This newspaper article explains it pretty well: http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...ScMyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0eoFAAAAIBAJ&pg=796,3187993
I've never quite understood it myself, how a debuting fighter lands in the ring with the champ.. Even if Teofilo Stevenson had turned pro, I'm still not sure that it would be justified in my mind to give him a title shot in his first pro bout... My guess is that comp was scarce, and Rademacher did have an impressive amatuer career, so they just winged it....
Oh I see now.. Hurley was trying to use Rademacher's populariity as a home town hero to sell tickets in his own back yard.... Thanks...
There was a world title fight in the 70s which i think was just as bad if not worse. Luis Estaba fought Rafael Lovera for the vacant WBC light-flyweight title and beat him in 4 rounds. It later came out that Lovera had never previously boxed as a pro. LOL! work that one out. At least Pete had an olympic background!! How on earth was the fight sanctioned i do not know.