According to Wikipedia: "At the age of 14, Pacquiao moved to Manila and lived for a time on the streets. He started boxing and made the Philippine national amateur boxing team where his room and board were paid for by the government. Pacquiao reportedly had an amateur record of 60 wins and 4 losses."
pac had a couple of amateur fights when he was super young, so did canelo. Chris algieri had ZERO amateur fights and won a world title.
Some can.. Getting the experience as a professional can do it. How many fights did Chavez have? I don't know, but he was a guy who got his knowledge fighting often and he was so great and put his punches together so well. The amateur style helps make fighters more versatile so they can fall back on that at times when someone like Chavez might not have the other gear. But the greats sometimes don't need the other gear or style.
Yeah, Rahway had a boxing program, and that's where Qawi learned to box. That said, any matches he had in jail weren't recorded and he never had an official amatuer contest. So, no official amateur boxing experience.
Jeff Chandler only had two amateur bouts before turning pro and winning a world championship at bantamweight.
