Most people are always saying that amateur and pro boxing are two different worlds. Personally I don't see much difference besides the obvious " no headgear and more rounds ". I see that good amateurs also have about the same arsenal of punches, defense and are also very technical as the pros. As a matter of fact, I have seen many " amateurs " that are 5 times better than pro boxers. Why then do most people see a big difference between the two? :huh
Huge difference... Superior Skills, Technique, Stamina, Power, Speed... The elite amateurs are no where close to the elite pros.
amateurs boxers dont rely too much in power or stamina but speed, footwork and accuracy.Everyting they need is go ahead for a few rds-besides they are more protected around the head and dont need to go down to receive a count to recover. But a good amateur already has the fundamentals to make a good transition-like casamayor,gamboa and i hope rigondeaux. others like Yan Barthelemy cant make it thru.
The point system has lead to the amateurs being almost unrecognizable to the pro's. When you class a jab as being as valuable as a solid right-hand, you get fighters who're concerned with tapping their opponent then getting out of range, rather than actually doing any damage. It's a whole different skill-set.
pro boxers needs more toughness to succeed compared to amateurs. a shaky chin boxer has a higher chance of success at amateur than in pro boxing while a less technical/skilled fighter can have a more chance to be successful at pro than on amateur. of course this is only my opinion and feel free to disprove them.
Thanks for your opinions, they are very good. I understand many of your points but still have major doubt. I knew Casamayor personally ( when he was about 8-0 ) and I asked him what were the differences. He told me like this " it's the same $hit " !!! This is coming from a guy with 350+ amateur bouts, and not only him but Cuban junior middleweight Erislandy Lara also said a very similar comment. We should hear what the fighters say and not just what we think, as they are the ones who really know the difference. Until we actually fight in the ams and pros then we can speculate, till then our opinions are just opinions ...
Uhm... Casamayor said its the same **** yet took nearly 3 years to fight for a title. It's not the same.
Then if pros are so much better like people say how come I have seen pros that are absolutely horrible and amateurs that are 10 times better? Please explain ...
So what? He had to climb up the ladder like everyone else. I really believed what he told me, he was very sincere. Plus, Joel at 8-0 was the exact same fighter as in the ams and he was kicking butt. It was actually Joe Goossen who later changed his style to a more " defensive " one and it did him more harm than good. I really believe that pro boxing and boxers are overrated...
Because not every professional good. Is that not obvious? The elite level of professional boxing shits on anything amateur boxing has. When have you seen an amateur crossover within his first few fights and win a major fight? Ali vs Spinks? Ali was easily past it.
because some ams aren't allowed to turn pro? maybe because some dont want to turn pro? some pro's are fairly low skilled journeymen? you would need to specify what standard or pro and what standard of am you're using for your comparison, as it would be very easy to say a multiple amateur world champion was more skilled than a lad who turned pro just to make ends meet.
If he was the exact same fighter why was he fighting bums for the most part? Why didn't he just step up to fighting top contenders?
am is a point game. pro is a hurt game. look at it this way, a good am doesn't always make a good pro. but a **** load of unsuccessful ams have become champions, well relatively recently
Hmmm, Rigondeaux defeated Cordoba with just 7 pro fights and Cordoba was an ex-World Champion with 45+ fights! I don't agree with that statement you made. I believe that an accomplished proven World amateur can beat any pro at any time in a 4 or 6 rounder of course. I would really love to see an Amateur VS Pro Tournament. This has never been done before and will prove once and for all who is better. They should get all the current Olympic Gold medal winners and make them fight a 5 or 6 rounder with headgear against the best pros to see who wins. I have a feeling that pros will lose as they are not used to winning by scoring blows.
