Clemente Russo: Campanian Thunder-Meet Italia's Molto Buona Second Best Heavyweight.

Second best? Come on, fix that. Cammarelle is a super heavy.

 

True but in pro terms no such distinction is made, everything over 200lbs is just heavyweight.

...but you're right, he is probably the #1 (amateur, pro or "semi-pro" in the WSB or APB) of all Italians competing with a 200lb pro or 201lb amateur cap.

He could probably turn pro at either cruiser or heavy and be the country's #1 in no time, simply because the pool of talent is so thin. He's better than Modugno, for instance, and would only have Larghetti and Fragomeni in the CW argument.

...but...

a) he's still miles behind Cammarelle in pound for pound terms, and overall legacy of greatness. Cammarelle isn't just bigger, he's flat-out better.

b) Russo has been on top for many years and is still a serviceable world class amateur, maybe able to have some tourney success and perhaps even medal next year in Rio if he qualifies to get in through a backdoor method (having missed his automatic entry, on the line in Egorov II) - but, his window seems to be closing as his reflexes are dulling with age lately, not quite shot but getting there, given the beatings he took from Egorov...and turning pro now to cash out would do him little good as his style wouldn't really suit it.

That or Egorov is just a diamond in the rough about to go on to do big things and/or stylistic poison for Russo.

I am inclined to believe a mixture of all three, with particular emphasis on the last option. Russo's indeed slightly on the decline, Egorov is to my eyes clearly pretty good (though he still gets hit too easily for me to imagine he'll be the next HW conqueror or potential great or anything) and he clearly has Russo's #.

 

I'm not sure whether Cammarelle is retired or not, but he hasn't competed in either WSB or APB. He did state some time ago that he wants to go to Rio though. Also, Russo is a professional boxer (although still under AIBA) and there is super-heavy division in AIBA Pro Boxing.

Russo also fought at super heavyweight in the first WSB season when he became the individual champion, beating Majidov in the final. However, he still participated as a heavyweight for Italia Thunder I think.

Modugno isn't even a top Italian boxer, not sure why is he brought up. Russo already beat him a couple of times too if I'm correct. He's probably brought up because he's pretty much the only Italian heavy in the pros, but he's not anywhere near the top Italian heavy and probably never will be. 5 rounds, 12 rounds or 100 rounds, Russo beats him easily every time. If any Italian pro heavy would put up an interesting fight against Russo, it's probably Pianeta.

a) I agree that Cammarelle is better and has achieved more, but Russo has done well for himself too. Also forget about that pound for pound thing, that's for midget boxing.

b) Russo currently makes way more money than if he turned pro at this point and tried to build his way up, so there is no "cashing out" for him. I'm not sure about Egorov, didn't see much of him apart from the Russo fights, but it could be a combination of style and the fact that Russo is on the slide. Egorov also won the Russian championships so it's not like he doesn't have a pedigree either.

 

C you might want to consider an Egorov thread (since he is so much younger - by nine years - and so probably has more of a future than Russo...and is heading to Rio unlike Tatanka as things stand now) - but I'd caution that he may falter in elite international competition when he steps outside this rivalry, based on some disturbing trends he showed against Russo even while dominating him. So I would be guarded in getting our hopes up too high for him, when he could just happen to be the perfect kryptonite for a sliding Russo and merely "good", not the beast that flattering pair of fights made him appear to be.

Not only does Egorov have more time on his side being relatively fresh and youthful, his style is a better fit in terms of transitioning into the pros.

 

Finding his age took a bit of digging, actually. He doesn't have an English language Wikipedia page but a disambiguation page for his name (which is somewhat common and shared by some famous Russians including other athletes) links to a Russian Wikipedia page which does have detailed bio info on him.

I'd recommend searching under his full Russian name, Алексей Юрьевич Егоров, to hunt down videos of him besides the easy to find Russo I & II.

 

So are you implying CST80 oughtn't make a thread for him? Anyone who doesn't waltz in and steamroll the field to an Olympic gold - after having only just dipped their piggies in the pond outside their national scene - isn't worth keeping track of? :yep It'd be a bit silly to have a thread on Russo and not the kid that just liked him twice. (both times via MD, yes, but really clearly enough they shouldn't have been)

I'm not holding my breath for him to medal in RDJ either but I certainly expect his name will be in the mix for some years to come.

 

Yeah, that's all I could scrounge up searching in English myself.

If you feel inclined try your luck with his name un-transliterated in the native Cyrillic above. (I would but I'm on my phone on my commute home and between tiny keys on my touchscreen and service being spotty, stuff like messing around with videos, copy/paste etc is too much of a hassle)

 

Seriously, did Ward fight everyone in the amateurs?

 

Pretty much. :yep