Define bust: just someone with not many bouts like Tim Witherspoon (7 I think) or Pinklon Thomas (about the same)? Because there are guys who could get to the nationals but not win but that doesn’t make them a bust. Or fell short of the Olympics (like Tyson, who made the finals at the Trials) — same thing. I knew a guy back in the day who won his regional Golden Gloves every year and would then run into Roy Jones Jr at nationals.. and, of course, promptly lost. This happened like three or four times (in juniors and open). So he decides finally just to go up in weight a class to see how he can do if he doesn’t have to face RJJ ... and when he gets to nationals who does he find has moved up into his weight class? Roy Jr, lol. And he lost again. He became a decent club fighter/opponent type. He probably wasn’t going to win the National Golden Gloves anyway, there would have been someone else. But Roy never stopped him in the amateurs and even brought him down to Pensacola when they were pros and used him as a paid sparring partner. So at least I guess he got Roy’s respect.
Not really a bust, but Mike Tyson sort of didn't fulfill his potential at the amateur level. He won some important bouts, first got noticed, and landed on the cover of the premier amateur boxing magazine in the country, but he didn't make the olympic team and was beaten by guys like Henry Tillman. As I understand it, part of the problem was that U.S. olympic team officials wanted him to compete at heavyweight, rather than super-heavy against Tyrell Biggs. Tyson was obviously much better suited for the pros.
Johnny Nelson 3-10 Tex Cobb 0-2 Duke McKenzie 30-35 Librado Andrade 2-13 Freddie Pendleton 2 weight champion Harry Jeffra 1-25
Tony Sibson didn't pull up any trees as an amateur. I can think of plenty of guys at British Title level over the years who were not high profile amateurs.
As you know, Steve, a lot of old-time managers preferred to start their fighters off in the pros because they could pick and choose their fighters' level of competition. In a typical regional amateur tournament like the Golden Gloves, match-ups were made on a random basis so that an experienced amateur might fight a novice and receive a bad beating. Novice classifications were established to address this issue in big cities like Chicago and New York, but even then mismatches frequently occurred. In smaller cities, Golden Gloves matchmaking remained random. Today, meets are often regional invitationals sponsored by local boxing clubs from nearby regions, I think a better effort is made to match the youngsters carefully. Also, in the shows I've been to in the last 10-15 years,the fights are usually stopped before a youngster can take a beating. Not so with the GG tournaments I attended years ago.
There are guys like Marciano, who didn't win too many amateur fights and lost a number of them. But he wasn't an amateur for very long. I don't believe there are a lot of bad amateur boxers who remain amateurs for an extended period of time. In the pros, you may find guys who lose for years, and develop these ridiculously bad win-loss records, but they do it because they pick up a check. Some don't even learn to fight. They just go down and get paid. In the amateurs, most clubs don't want to enter you in tournaments if you lose constantly. They are there to teach you boxing, but if you can't fight, there's no value for them in letting you on squads they enter in tournaments. Most guys who are amateurs for a long time know how to fight and win their fair share. And most amateurs who aren't good (and aren't being paid) tend to move along and do something else.
