I don't know if "handled" is the right term. Lol Those exhibition fights were very friendly and tame.
Well.. Jorge Louis Gonzalez stopped Bowe as an amateur. *shrugs* So who knows. But it's safe to say the guy had potential and a better than good chance to be right in the mix with the top HW's of the 70's
They weren't all out, but they weren't holding back too much either. They seemed to all want their once in a lifetime chance at proving themselves against Ali. But I feel like I have to watch the footage again.
Yeah watch the Ali footage and then if you can.. watch the Vysotsky v.s Stevenson footage. Lol Big difference!
I don't know. By 1980, he quit boxing because he got cut too much fighting in three rounders. If he turned pro around 1976, after getting chopped up by Jimmy Clark in December 1975, and then getting cut again before the 1976 that kept him off the team, seems like he'd have had a VERY SHORT pro career. I'm not denigrating the guy's skills. And he sounds like a very decent man. But three round fights and 10 or 15 rounders are totally different for a guy who was a bleeder in three rounders.
He did get opened up pretty easily. Can't argue that. But even with that said... he had pretty damn good ability and seemed to have all the necessities! Chin, power, skills, endurance and heart. Just not tough skin. Lol
Thumbs up. He beat some notable USA pro heavies. Igor Vysotsky: Tony Tubbs (KO 2), [url]http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=000834[/url] Woody Clark (KO 2), [url]http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=001058[/url] Jimmy Clark (W3 and a loss on cuts) [url]http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=024034[/url] Mitch Green (W3) [url]http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=003171[/url] Greg Page(L3, although the result was controversial because the bout took place in America) Helton Willis (KO 1 in 25 seconds in)
Well, I've never heard of Helton Willis. And there's nothing on him in Boxrec. So I don't think he was a notable pro. Woody Clark wasn't a good pro at all. Jimmy Clark stopped him, and Clark wasn't a strong pro. (Top amateur but not a top pro.) As an amateur, he beat Tubbs and Green. Then again, so did Marvis Frazier in the amateurs, for whatever its worth. Like the writer said, Vysotsky had Stevenson's number. For some reason, he gave Stevenson fits. But Vysotsky was never the top amateur in the sport. And the other Cuban heavyweight (Romero) seemed to have Vysotsky's number. Vysotsky couldn't even qualify for the USSR's Olympic team in a couple tries. He was a top Russian heavyweight, no doubt, and an interesting story. But I think he got about as far as he was going to go as a boxer, in all honesty. He just gave one supremely successful amateur fighter a hard time no matter what. But he couldn't do the same with others.
Lol! "For some reason had Stevensons number." I don't know... maybe it was because he was a very good fighter. We'll never know how well he would have done in the pros but the odds are good that he would have been a force at his best. You don't beat those notable fighters by being some average Joe that just got lucky multiple times "For what ever reason."
I never said he wasn't a good fighter. But he wasn't winning international competitions around the world, either. Look, guys who AREN'T great can give GREAT fighters some of their worst nights. Ken Norton gave Ali three of the worst nights of his career. Against the other top guys he faced, Norton wasn't exactly a dominant force.