History of professional boxing if Soviet countries could fight pro?

The Great Mascaev and Valuevs have really set the Russian boxing world on fire.
#legends

 

What?

In 1976, the U.S. won five Gold medals. Cuba won three gold medals. The USSR finished the boxing competition with five Bronze medals (no gold/no silver).

Light Heavyweight GOLD – USA (Leon Spinks
Middleweight GOLD – USA (Michael Spinks)
Light Welterweight GOLD – USA (Sugar Ray Leonard)
Lightweight GOLD – USA (Howard Davis Jr.)
Flyweight GOLD – USA (Leo Randolph)

Bantamweight SILVER – USA (Charles Mooney)
Heavyweight BRONZE- USA (John Tate)

 

The U.S. did fine against the Soviet Union before the USSR dissolved in 1991.

In 1952, the U.S. won five Gold medals. The USSR finished with two Silver medals and four Bronze medals.
Flyweight GOLD – USA (Nate Brooks)
Light Welterweight GOLD – USA (Charles Adkins)
Middleweight GOLD – USA (Floyd Patterson)
Light Heavyweight GOLD – USA (Norvel Lee)
Heavyweight GOLD – USA (Ed Sanders – who defeated Ingemar Johansson in the final)

In 1956, the U.S. won two Gold medals and one Silver. The USSR finished above them with three Gold medals, one Silver medale, and two Bronze medals.
Heavyweight GOLD – USA (Pete Rademacher)
Light Heavyweight GOLD – USA (James Boyd)
Light Middleweight SILVER – USA (Jose Torres – who lost in the final to Laszlo Papp of Hungary)

In 1960, the U.S. won three Gold medals and one Bronze medal. The USSR finished with one Gold, two Silver and two Bronze medals.
Light Heavyweight GOLD – USA (Cassius Clay)
Middleweight GOLD – USA (Eddie Crook, Jr.)
Light Middleweight GOLD – USA (Wilbert McClure Jr.)
Light Welterweight BRONZE – USA (Quincy Daniels)

1964, the U.S. finished with one Gold Medal and two Bronze medals. The USSR finished with three Gold medals, two Silver medals and three Bronze medals.
Heavyweight GOLD – USA (Joe Frazier)
Lightweight BRONZE – USA (Ronnie Harris)
Featherweight BRONZE – USA (Charles Brown)

In 1968, the U.S. finished with two Gold medals, one silver medal and four Bronze medals. The USSR finished with three Gold medals, two Silver medals and one Bronze medal.

Heavyweight GOLD – USA (George Foreman)
Lightweight GOLD – USA (Ronnie Harris)
Featherweight SILVER – USA (Alberto Robinson)
Middleweight Bronze – USA (Al Jones)
Light Middleweight Bronze – USA (John Baldwin)
Light Welterweight Bronze – USA (James Wallington)
Light Flyweight Bronze – USA (Harlan Marbley)

In 1972, the U.S. finished with one Gold medal and three Bronze medals. The USSR finished with 2 Golds. Cuba finished first for the first time with three Gold medals, one Silver medal, and one Bronze.
Light Welterweight Gold – USA (Sugar Ray Seales)
Middleweight Bronze – USA (Marvin Johnson)
Welterweight Bronze – USA (Jesse Valdez)
Bantamweight Bronze – USA (Ricardo Carreras)

In 1976 – The U.S. won five Gold medals. Cuba won three gold medals. The Soviet Union finished the boxing competition with five Bronze medals (no gold/no silver).
Light Heavyweight GOLD – USA (Leon Spinks
Middleweight GOLD – USA (Michael Spinks)
Light Welterweight GOLD – USA (Sugar Ray Leonard)
Lightweight GOLD – USA (Howard Davis Jr.)
Flyweight GOLD – USA (Leo Randolph)
Bantamweight SILVER – USA (Charles Mooney)
Heavyweight BRONZE- USA (John Tate)

In 1980, the U.S. didn’t compete.

In 1984, the U.S. won nine Gold medals, one Silver and one Bronze. The U.S.S.R. and Cuba didn’t compete.
Super Heavyweight Gold – USA (Tyrell Biggs)
Heavyweight Gold – USA (Henry Tillman)
Light Middleweight Gold – USA (Frank Tate)
Welterweight Gold – USA (Mark Breland)
Light Welterweight Gold – USA (Jerry Page)
Lightweight Gold – USA (Pernell Whitaker)
Featherweight Gold – USA (Meldrick Taylor)
Flyweight Gold – USA (Steve McCrory)
Light Flyweight Gold – USA (Paul Gonzales)
Middleweight Silver – USA (Virgil Hill)
Light Heavyweight Bronze - USA (Evander Holyfield)


In 1988, the U.S. finished with three Gold medals, three Silver medals, and two Bronze medals. The U.S.S.R. finished with one Gold, one Silver and two Bronze. Cuba didn’t compete.
Heavyweight Gold – USA (Ray Mercer)
Light Heavyweight Gold – USA (Andrew Maynard)
Bantamweight Gold – USA (Kennedy McKinney)
Light Middleweight Silver – USA (Roy Jones Jr.)
Super Heavyweight Silver – USA (Riddick Bowe)
Light Flyweight Silver – USA (Michael Carbajal)
Welterweight Bronze – USA (Kenny Gould)
Lightweight Bronze – USA (Romallis Ellis)

 

Which U.S. verdicts involving the Spinks brothers, Sugar Ray Leonard, Howard Davis Jr. , etc. were controversial in 1976? I've seen them all. Can't think of one.

The controversial calls in the 1984 (Holyfield) and in 1988 (Todd Foster and Roy Jones) prevented the U.S. from winning even more. The Jones loss was so controversial they changed the way the entire sport of amateur boxing is judged.

 

Back then, the U.S. spent four years putting a team together with the big prize being the Olympics, and the team was more or less dissolved after that. Few people stuck around from one Olympic games to another. In the 1974 World Championships, guys represented the U.S. who didn't even make the 1976 Olympic Team and guys who did fight on the '76 team (like Howard Davis Jr.) were still teenagers (some in high school).

If Cassius Clay, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Ray Leonard, the Spinks brothers, etc. never turned pro, the U.S. would've won everything ... year after year.

For example, do you think the U.S. would've sent "Marvin Stinson" to the '74 World Championships if George Foreman never turned pro? Why isn't that ever brought up when comparing the Soviets and Cubans to the U.S. amateurs?

Hell, after George Foreman won the National AAU heavyweight championship in 1968, Earnie Shavers won it in 1969. And, in 1970, Ron Lyle won it. And none of them (Foreman, Shavers and Lyle) stuck around for the 1972 Olympics. We ended up with Duane Bobick in '72.

 

So you basically counted 50 years of Olympic boxing where USSR and Cuba didn't even compete.

Since USSR/Russia and Cuba are competing in the Olympics, they are both more successful than the US.

Also, in the World Championships, both nations are more successful than the US by far (Cuba 67 gold, Russia/USSR 36, USA 16). Not to mention the PanAm games where Cuba is by far the most successful nation.

At least be a little objective, because "not much different" doesn't have anything to do with the reality.

 

It's a mistake to think of the Eastern blok countries as an homogenous entity - Yugoslavia under Tito was relatively moderate in many respects, as were Hungary and Czechoslovakia, especially in the latter years of the Soviets.

As the keystone state in defensive terms East Germany remained relatively tightly controlled up until the end, but all the 'Iron Curtain' rhetoric tends to create a false impression of the level of unity and independence of the Eastern European countries.

 

What?

When do you guys think the Soviet Union was founded -- the 1970s? It began 50 years before that.

The U.s. was winning gold medals in Olympic boxing in 1924, several years after the Soviet Union came into existence.

The USSR didn't even send a boxing team to the Olympics until 1952.

Cuba didn't even medal in boxing until the Olympics until 1972. And Cuba didn't even compete in '84 and '88 -- the last two Olympics before the Soviet Union dissolved.

Are you saying the Cubans were the best at boxing -- because they won a lot in the '70s? What about the 20s? The 30s? The 40s? The 50s? The 60s? The 80s?

Hell, since the 1950s, when they entered, the USSR didn't even finish ahead of the U.S. head-to-head. The U.S. won more Gold in four of the eight Olympic Games they competed in together - 52, '60, '76, '88 - prior to the Soviet Union dissolving.

 

whoopie
who didnt win versions after Lewis?

 

Heavyweight boxing would of been considered weak decades ago

 

SRR would have more L's and Ali would not be the self proclaimed the greatest.

 

:deal That Soviet Union and Cuba wouldn't let their guys turn pros, that's their fault. They know their aura of invincibility would of been shattered in the pros.