Shame about Rigondeux being captured, the guy is awesome, would be a great pro; dynamite in his fists, awkward southpaw stance, throws from strange angles and seems tough as Hell. Looks like a great; shame he's been banned for life.
True. Around the time they mooted this fight (the late 70's) Ali lost to 8-fight novice and Olympic champ Leon Spinks. Trust me, Stevenson would've given Ali a harder fight than Spinks.
Yeah. Anyone who thinks this fight would be even remotely competitive hasn't done their homework. Look up some of the thousand other threads like this one. Igor Vysotsky beat the dog**** out of stevenson twice and stopped him once, which is hard to do in the amateurs. Ali toyed with Vysotsky - an old, fat Ali. An old fat Ali also wanted to fight Stevenson in a 10 rd fight, the cubans wanted a three rounder or no fight, so there was no fight. Comparing Teofilo to Ali is an insult to Ali, and it shows what you know, which is very ****ing little. Educate yourself before you post on a board like you know something for a fact, when you obviously don't.
That's good, considering he's probably the only guy that has a winning record against him when he was on.I still think 1978 Page beats Teo:good.
Maybe but we would never know just because you beat a fighter in the amateurs doesnt mean you'll beat him in the pros. Tito trinidad was 17 when he fought kinderlan. Some fighters are good amateur boxers and good pros, others are bad amateur fighters and great pros, and others are good amateur fighters and bad pros. I actually think Stevenson couldve been a great pro because his style was different than the typical cuban style of slick boxer mover. He was more of a slow power puncher that was big and had a lot of power so his style was more suited for the pros. But he refused to betray the revolution so i admire him for that. Felix Savon was another boxer that couldve been a great pro his style was taylor made for the pros. :hat
Jorge Luis Gonzalez beat Bowe and Lewis in the Ams and it certainly changed in the Pros against Bowe and I have no doubt Lewis would have been just as dominant had they met. Stevenson was a great amatuer, no doubt and could have been a very good pro. But he was 20 when he won his first gold. Had Frazier and Foreman stayed as ams for three olympics its feasible that Stevenson may have never won an Olympics. Also the 80 Games were boycotted. I am not belittling his accomplishments but they do need to be put into perspective. Most western ams were teenagers or early 20s whilst Teofilo was an experienced, fully developed man. I can not see a 3/4 round fighter getting the job done against Ali during the 70s
Jorge Luis Gonzalez is an even more pertinent case in point of a great amateur being a dud pro. Edit: Jear beat me to it.
Is obvious that amateur success doesnt guarantee pro success but to say that they couldnt have developed into dominant pro heavyweights is being to shortsighted. We will never know but looking at both stevenson and savon you can easily see they had lots of talents and couldve been competitive. Jorge Luis Gonzalez who was half the boxer both stevenson and savon were still got to compete at the highest level. He didnt do great but competed so savon and stevenson couldve easily been champions. If John Ruiz won a title why couldnt stevenson and savon both over 6'5" with heavy hands and athleticism. :hat