Boxers who fought a veteran / champion very early in their pro career

Beat Rudy Barro, who was ranked in the top five at lightweight, in his pro debut as well.

 

I remember one of the magazines at the time reporting that there were 20-odd unrecorded Maskaev fights from coming up in Kazakhstan, where record-keeping was spotty at that time with the breakup of the Soviet state. Kazakhstan had only been a country for like two years when he had his first officially recorded fight … which was a third-round KO of a guy with a 21-0 record.

Seeing him, I put some credence into it. He certainly didn’t look like a novice vs. McCall.

But there’s some squirrelly record-keeping going on as his first officially recorded pro fight is before he fought in the 1994 world championships and make it to the finals (he couldn’t fight amateur after turning pro under amateurism rules at the time). He may have been having something along the lines of unsanctioned semi-pro fights while also fighting amateur.

 

Yep

Fought Juan Laporte and Livingstone Bramble in his first year as a pro.

 

I did...