Amateur greats who turned pro too late?

This thread is inspired by the thread on how well Felix Savon would have done as pro:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/felix-savon-what-if.648780/

I argued there that it is more useful to consider amateur greats who did turn pro but too late, because we really have too little information on how career amateurs would have done as pros. Simply put, it is almost impossible to get a grasp of a fighter's stamina, chin, and heart within the confines of 9-minute matches. In contrast, with those who turned pro a bit too late, we do have some indicator of how these amateur guys would translate in the pros.

The two guys who came to mind immediately are Sung-kil Moon and Kwang-sun Kim, who were contemporaries and who would have almost certainly turned pro the same year had they won the 84 LA Olympics. They were both favorites for the Gold: And yet Kim lost the first round fight with Paul Gonzalez (who would be voted the most outstanding fighter in that Olympics) in a somewhat controversial bout (this fight and Dong-kil Kim's loss at the junior welterweight to Jerry Page set up the "revenge" decision against Roy Jones in Seoul in 88); and Moon destroyed the American co-favorite Shannon, but had to bow out due to cuts sustained by a head butt in a later match. After these setbacks, Moon waited until winning the gold in the 86 Asian games (which was also in Seoul) to turn pro, and Kim waited till after the 88 Seoul Olympics - in which he did win the Gold.

Once they turned pro, the trajectories of Moon and Kim went in dramatically separate ways. Moon did win a bantamweight world title, and he is considered among the top 3 junior bantamweight champions ever - in spite of turning pro at an advanced age. So he did have a successful career. Kim, in contrast, was knocked out in both of his two title bouts against Gonzalez and Carbajal.

So how would these guys have done if they turned pro in 84 or 85, instead of 87 (Moon) and 90 (Kim), respectively? Moon lost two or three years of his prime, whereas Kim lost five or six years of his prime. Moon would likely have been 23 instead of 25 (the official birth date for Moon is wrong by 2 years; back in those days, Korea was a third world country - the poorest in the world by some measures - and many Koreans would not register child birth until the child was 2-3; my mother's official birth date, for instance, is also wrong); Kim would likely have been 20 instead of 26 (!).

It's pretty obvious that Moon's career would have changed less; he turned pro at an earlier age, and he was a bigger guy, and his game aged better (except the pressure attack part). Still, I think Moon's career would look dramatically different. He would be better for having turned pro early, because his game is predicated on his physicality. In concrete terms, Moon would likely have fought Lora or Gaby Canizales for a world title in mid 80s, would have beaten either, and stayed champion for a long time, and may never have moved down. (I know Kaokar beat him in Thailand, but the surrounding circumstances were such that I do not know what to think of this loss.)

Kim's career trajectory, of course, would be night and day different. 26 is extremely late in terms of turning pro at the junior flyweight, and he really wasted his pro potential. Nonetheless, he was good enough to give both Carbajal and Gonzalez all they can handle; and I'd pick him if a younger Kim were to fight them. More germane to the history of the weight class, Kim does not beat Chang, but he beats Yuh; and Kim would have likely taken the place of Yuh among the all-time greats at the weight, and Yuh would be barely an after thought at the weight today.

 

Holy crap. I didn't realize he was 30 when he turned pro! Jesus, I know higher weight guys age better, but that's nuts...

I'd like to know the background behind that decision to postpone his pro debut!

 

Ah, that makes a perfect sense!

Yeah, he's the first person I thought of when thinking of boxers who were in prison before they turned pro. Still, he turned pro at 23, and that's a huge gap from 30. What Lyle did seems pretty remarkable.

Indeed, Papp would be the first person I would think of if I were to do a list of Western boxers.

 

Yeah, that's a lot of fights...