Vysotsky was quite good, he stopped Tony Tubbs but lost against Greg Page, his biggest issue was his paper skin, apparently the beating on Stevenson was so bad that the Cuban officials confiscated the footage of the fight. This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected
He did nothing in the pros. So you can't put him in the same bracket as Ali. Plenty of outstanding amateurs flop hard in the pros. It's almost a different sport.
He was great. But the elephant in the room is he was allowed to, essentially, be a Professional while his non-Soviet Block competition were true amateurs.
He never officially turned pro. You can't put him in the IBHOF when he faced only true amateurs while he was being paid to fight. Who knows how he would have done if he actually turned pro. He should be in an Amateur Boxing HOF.
So what? Someone like Stevenson is much better than Gatti, Mancini or Hamed and all of them are in the HOF.
He wasn't better than Igor Vysotsky...should Igor be in the HOF? The IBHOF is a PRO HOF; if there is an Olympic or amateur HOF then sure vote him in.
Igor was good, but the sad part about it was, As great as Teo was, he couldn't get one win against Igor, while Angel Milian beat Igor 3 out of 4 times. Something wrong.
Many people think that Norton beat Ali three times but he doesn't have half the resume Ali has. Teofilo is way more accomplished and Igor, while good, was just a bad match up for him.
For sure, Russia had him in reserve in case Cuba sended Stevenson to the Olympics but cuts over his eyes prevented him fighting there and they ended up sending another guy
