History changed if any of these Soviets had gone pro?

It's spelled Murica, Dumbass!

 

Word up. Them soccer players are only like 5 foot nuthing. Lebron is like 8 foot. That's 4x better!

 

Really so guys like SRL, Whitaker, Holyfield, De La Hoya didn't have attention thanks to their amateur success right from the start or even less accomplished amateurs like Curry or Breland? They received opportunities to prove themselves in a way others didn't, don't act like the eras are not comparable and these guys were Eddie Booker "from another time".

I wouldn't expect someone like Nazarov to have the red carpet treatment but after traveling to South Africa to demolish a respectable Champion like Thobela, doing it again on the road in the rematch, destroying Gamache in his hometown far worse than Lopez did one might consider that as proving himself and earning more opportunity than he ultimately received. Also weird considering he hid out in Japan his whole career according to your hyperbole.

I'm not making a claim, Ross Greenburg who ran HBO boxing stated it outright in regards to boxers like Pirog post Jacobs or Kotelnyk after he schooled and got robbed against "the next Floyd Mayweather" in Devon Alexander. People like to pretend it never was the case but before Broner Devon was considered "lil Floyd" he was even at that fight.

Would Vysotsky have beaten the greatest HW the world of prizefighting ever produced, seems unlikely. The point is if all of the top talent from one of the best boxing regions on earth had flooded the pros from the 1950's onwards some would have failed, some would have succeeded and undoubtedly history would look different. I don't really see how that is a controversial opinion it's a talent and numbers game more than anything.

 

A few more to talk about:

Nokolai Korolev - Absolute Soviet Champion (1936,1937,1944, 1945) 9 time Champion of the USSR (1936-1939,1945-1949) Champion of the Socialist Olympics in Antwerp (1937)

Alexander Yagubkin - World champion, three time European champion, fourfold USSR champion, two time World Cup reward owner, absolute champion of USSR. Never participated at the Olympics.

Alexei Lezin Alexei Lezin - World amateur championship gold medal winner who beat both Klitschko's & Valuev in the 90's. Never turned pro.

Ulli Kaden (- Medalled four times over a decade at the european amateur championships, beat the likes of Teofilio Stevenson, Lennox Lewis and Alexander Miroshnichenko