Best Fighters with limited amateur experiance

Excellent!

Joltin' Jeff Chandler was the name I instantly thought of when I spotted this thread, and he's in the IBHOF.

Duran's amateur career has been reported to be as light at 13-3, with those defeats in his first three outings. However, his professional debut was at age 16, a four rounder against another making his professional debut, Carlos Mendoza, who would proceed to have a remarkable career of his own, giving a peak Wilfredo Gomez 10 rounds of hell, then follow up by defeating future WBC SBW Champion Juan Kid Meza. (Meza would win a rematch, helping himself get to a failed challenge of Gomez.)

 

Billy Conn

 

Which Gato Gonzalez? (I’m still not 100% sure it wasn’t the same guy all along, just balancing two separate careers, haha.)

I’ve read Pinklon Thomas had like seven amateur fights and also that he had three. Safe to say he didn’t have many whatever the exact number.

 

Amateur has little bearing on how good of a pro someone will be.

 

Rocky Marciano was 8-4 as an amateur.

 

Mendoza actually had one fight before fighting Roberto in Duran’s pro debut. I’d love to see what these two future accomplished guys looked like at that stage.

El Canonero was Panamanian by birth but relocated to Mexico after about 15 fights and that was his base for the rest of his career. Gave Gomez hell … unfortunately, near as I can tell there’s only the four rounds or so that ABC showed as a highlight package to fill time after Ray Leonard took out Andy “Hawk” Price in one. (Larry Holmes-Earnie Shavers II was the main event, and TV also showed Duran huff and puff his way to a not-terribly-impressive win over Zeferino Gonzales over 10.)

If anyone has or knows where I can locate the entire Gomez-Mendoza fight, I’d put a bounty on that one. Have always been intrigued to see the whole thing — almost to a certainty ABC taped the whole fight, so the footage existed at one time … but if it survived, it’s forgotten in a vault (or closet or attic) somewhere hidden away near as I can tell.

 

About Ron Lyle, nothing could be further from the truth, and he was an amateur legend even before the FOTC.

Lyle very famously knocked out Duane Bobick twice after prison, both times in the second round, each time with a single punch, once in a AAU US Nationals quarterfinal bout in May 1970, once in a successful bid to make Team USA International in January 1971, and Bobick was out for five minutes after the latter. These demonstrated Duane's vulnerability to the crushing right hand which undid him at the Munich Olympics, and it's entirely possible Ron would've won the HW Gold Medal over Teofilio Stevenson if he'd chosen to remain in amateur boxing, but he turned professional in April 1971, after knocking out Bobick for the second time to make the USA Boxing Team in January 1971. Prior to Bobick's defeat of Stevenson in the 1971 Pan Am Games, Lyle was the world's best amateur heavyweight.

Unlike Teo Stevenson, Ken Norton and John Tate, Lyle put Duane completely out for the count, with just a single right at that. Their rematch was Bobick's final amateur defeat prior to Munich, and Ron Lyle is the only one to ever defeat Duane Bobick twice in either the amateur or professional ranks.

He destroys Bobick in their rematch at 3:42, with the slow motion replay at 15:32...:

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The second one was very heavily hyped for his right, but got his jaw fractured while trying to retreat bait 34 year old trash talking Trinbagonian Claude Noel into it during their Championship Distance bout for the vacant WBA LW Title. (It looked like Noel might be one hell of a champion, but he stupidly wore brand new and stiff boxing shoes into his first defense, and was braced in them when he foolishly attempted a right uppercut from the outside against light punching Art Frias. Unless your name is Jofre, this is a bad idea.)

 

Yeah, and I'd love to ask Duran and Mendoza about this one, as they must both have vivid memories about it.

 

The real one of course. The lightweight champ. Not only desecrating the name but to plagiarize his nickname as well was like stolen valor