Obviously Holyfield and Whitaker were the best of the crop and became ATG fighters. There were also Jerry Page, Frank Tate, Steve McCrory, Meldrick Taylor, Mark Breland, Henry Tillman, Tyrell Biggs Rank them in order of achievements as professional boxers. Why so many of these talented guys failed to achieve greatness, or even to win 1 alphabet title?
Thought this would be fitting here. http://www.boxing247.com/boxing-int...th-emanuel-steward-part-iv-amateur-boxing/929
Meldrick Taylor or Virgil Hill would be the third most accomplished. The Soviets, Eastern European and Cubans all boycotted. If those nations had competed, the U.S. team likely would not have won as many Medals. The 1976 Team faced tougher competition.
I have to agree the '76 team was better and more proven as amateurs. As to the Jerry Pages and Steve McCrorys of that bunch, well...............not everyone can win a title. I'd probably go: Taylor Tate Breland Biggs Tillman McCrory Page
The 1976 team was better, simply because they beat harder tougher competition.. The 76 guys had to get thru Cubans and Russians, the 84 guys went thru creampuffs by comparison..
Two hall of famers, a P4P top 10 guy, two solid world champs, a fair pedestrian champ (Tillman), a 30-5 journeyman who lost his only title shot (McCrory), and a journeyman. That's not bad.
Well, Holyfield, Whitaker and Virgil Hill are in the Hall of Fame. So, they rank as the top 3. 1. Holyfield 2. Whitaker 3. Hill Meldrick Taylor and Frank Tate won pro titles in more than one division. 4. Taylor 5. Tate Breland was the best amateur on the team, and was a two-time welterweight titleholder, but he wasn't the best pro. 6. Breland Biggs, Tillman, McCrory and Gonzales were good fighters who fought HOFers (Tyson, Holyfield, Fenech and Canizales) in failed title challenges. 7. Biggs 8. Tillman 9. McCrory 10. Gonzales Jerry Page and Robert Shannon were somewhat failed pros. 11. Page 12. Shannon
Great listing and I agree with it.. To be fair to Jerry Page he was thrown in with Terrence Alli, Frankie Randall and Rodney Moore while having a dozen or less fights against them. Mismanagement might have been the cause of his undoing.
Yeah, Page was kind of an oddball. Three years after the Olympics, he only had three fights. Then he fought a lot against tough guys over the next three years, then he retired. I don't know if it was bad management. I read he really wasn't in any hurry to turn pro. And he really wasn't interested in fighting as a pro unless everything was just right. Probably sabotaged himself more than anything else.
I'd put Tillman a little lower. He lost to Bert Cooper and Dwain Bonds, before Losing to Tyson. I'd put Biggs ahead of him, at least. Tillman's only good win was a surprise stoppage of Bashiru Ali.
Tillman-Cooper was a war, a great fight. Cooper dropped Tillman tiwce early and hurt him many times, but Henry showed some skills and heart there and outboxed Bert in the later rounds. Don't know why Tillman underachieved. He looked good, skilled boxer, and he had height/reach to be a force at cruiserweight. Of course, not in time when Holyfield dominated, but after Evander moved up to HW, the division was open and 3 belts were there to win.
Glen McCrory is kind of on the border between failed pro and that other list. He went on a bad losing streak at one point and was getting beat by guys like Westgarth and Hughroy Currie.
Tillman was a good boxer with decent athleticism and definitely top grade amateur pedigree. But he simply couldn't take it.. And unfortunately almost every decent rated fighter he met could punch. He also never truly got set in one weight class.. He sort of stood on the border between cruiser and heavy.
mr. magoo, what are your thoughts about Biggs, why did he fail at the highest level? Was he ruined by Tyson's loss?