Boxers who were serious HS/college athletes in other sports?

Sullivan, baseball, Maher, Gaelic, Sharkey, AAm football, Curran, rugby, Thornton, Cycling

 

John L played baseball into his boxing career.

 

Kermit Cintron was a very good wrestler. I believe (unsure) that Nigel Benn was a very good kickboxer.

 

Anthony Mundine was a top-level Rugby League player before emulating his old man and switching to boxing.

Blast from the past - Eddie Eagan won Olympic gold medals in boxing and the four man bobsleigh.

 

Abe Simon played college football

 

Mark Gastineau, Ed "Too Tall" Jones and Alonzo Highsmith played in the NFL

....Okay they were horrible boxers.

 

Charlie Powell fought Muhammad Ali and was evidently an absolute champion footballer.

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Powell[/url]

I dont believe young peeps these days realise how small bikkies the NFL and NBA were in comparison to Heavyweight Boxing up to the mid 1980s.

When there was talk of matching the Heavyweight champion Ali with the NBA's best player Chamberlain in the late 1960s it was actually Ali who was the more well known sportsman - bigger star.

Imagine if Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder were much bigger stars than say Tom Brady and or Le Bron James. Thats how big a guy like Ali was. Mike Tyson was also incredibly famous.

I imagine there would have been more than a few modern ball sports players who would have made great fighters but boxing is one of those sports that a childhood grounding makes all the difference.

Jim Brown was a great athlete and an incredibly strong man but in the boxing ring Ali would have punched him to pieces.

Cheers All

 

Anthony Mundine is an excellent example of someone who has had success in two sports as a previous poster commented.

Ambrose Palmer was another Aussie fighter ( and trainer ) who was also a star footballer.

[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrose_Palmer[/url]

 

Abe Simon was probably a better football player than Joe Louis

 

Fraser Scott anyone? In his late teen's he (they) suddenly realized he had boxing skills/talent. His book is an interesting read; many call him a 'whiney boy' but, in reading his book, I think there is a bit of truth in what he said. Lastly, IMO he would have never rose to world class but his book is a good read IMO

 

Or, ya know, sometimes it's even called Futbol.... Crazy thing I know

 

Jim Jeffries:

"Jeffries had a lot more than just a modern heavyweights size and great strength going for him; he was also an outstanding natural athlete. John Durant, wrote in The Heavyweight Champions, “He was surprisingly fast and agile. He could run 100 yards in 11 seconds, and high jump 5 feet, 10 inches.” That is absolutely remarkable for a man of his size. Consider that Jesse Owens ran the 100-yard dash in 9.4 seconds a worlds record in 1936 (nowadays they run 100 meters). That a heavyweight boxer, not a track and field athlete, can accomplish such feats is the mark of an excellent athletic talent.

Eyewitness referee Billy Roche concurred saying Jeffries had the "acrobatic springiness of a circus tumbler in his legs. He was no lumbering ox, anchored to one spot, but a natural athlete."

 

Harold Johnson was a high school football and basketball player from what I read.