NAME some fighters who barely/or never improved their skills throughtout their careers. I'd say Oscar Valdez.
Kostya Tszyu immediately came to my mind. He was basically the finished article as soon as he stepped out of the amateurs. One of my absolute favourites was pretty damn complete as soon as he turned pro, and that's Veeraphol Sahaprom. In his first title fight (fourth pro fight), he showed essentially all of the skills he'd use throughout the rest of his career, give or take. He changed his style after Nana got go him, but he was pretty damn skilled straight out the gate.
I'm not sure anyone was but obviously Patterson, Tyson, Leonard, Benitez, Jones Jr, Mayweather, Whitaker, Holyfield were near the top from the start Tyson is the ultimate example imo. Not many people in history are beating a 18yo-20yo Tyson
Most of the amateur standouts. Especially the ones who turned pro at advanced ages. They tended to simply decline sooner or later.
I get what you are saying but Kostya made some adjustments and improvements after Phillips. He was more patient, developed a world class body attack and read his opponents much better.
Tszyu was the first name that sprung to mind for me too. Like Bujia says, the amateur standouts who basically just have to adjust to more rounds and maybe the odd dirty pro trick etc. Lomachenko, Arbachakov, Nazarov, Golovkin and many of the ex-Soviet/Eurasian fighters. The South Koreans, Moon and his contemporaries. Payakaroon, Sahaprom, Muangsurin, Chitalada etc and the storied Muay Thai fighters.
Greg Page unfortunately never developed at stages when he should have been. Witherspoon would be another.
Joichiro Tatsuyoshi is one, and he didn't have the amateur background either. Won the world title in his 8th bout at age 21, having only had 19 AM bouts in the space of around 18 months (recording a 18 - 1 resume) before turning pro around age 19. Fought with the same extreme offence and talented movement from the start. A massive talent who burnt out extremely quickly, but Boxed on too long. One of my favourites, with some exceptional wars. Fought quality opponents almost immediately and throughout his career.
Negative. He definitely improved technically over time. Good choice for that thread of fighters who were better in their 30s than 20s. I think he was actually a better, more cerebral fighter at Middleweight than Jr. Middle for the most part. Early 80s Mike did not impress me in that regard, though he’d rounded out nicely by ‘85 or so. The competition was just a lot stiffer at Middle and he didn’t maintain quite the same physical advantages. Therefore he didn’t show the same kind of dominance.
