How good of a pro would Teofilo Stevenson been?

Good point my man!

 

Thanks mate,

Happy New Year by the way.

There are some who thought that if Stevenson had turned pro that he might have beaten Holmes in his debut match. I have always thought this claim to be a stretch. Henry Tillman, Pete Rademacher, Tyrell Biggs, Leon Spinks and numerous others were each expected to be the next coming of an all time great in his perspective era, but none ever materialized ( with the exception of Spinks who DID win a world title, but never became great ). There is a huge difference between fighting 3 round matches against teenage boys, and fighting in 8-10 round bouts with mature men... Some guys never survive the transition.

 

Exactly. How could we know. Brought up in the usual manner tho i am confident he would at least have been a top 10 contender.

 

Agreed,

I think he had what it took to be a solid pro. An all time great however, is a claim that needs to be reserved for those who actually take the step..

 

This criticism gets raised a lot when it comes to the top Commie fighters. Why is it we never heard it when it comes to the top Western amatuers?

Leon Spinks was 23 years old and a US Marine when he went to the 76 Olympics. Lennox Lewis was 23 when he won the gold at his second games.

Ray Mercer was 27 and Audley Harrison was 29. So where were the critics when they were beating up on teenagers?

 

And now that I think about it weren't both Tyrell Biggs and Henry Tillman 23 or 24 at the LA Games?

 

you are completly wrong. nick had shattered bobbicks nose and was on his way to win the spot on 72 team, but a cut suffered at the team hotel bled into nicks eye having the ref stop the fight while nick was on the stool ,headed to the 3rd rd. nick had him beat. get your facts straight . bobbick was weak i was there.

 

Mercer started boxing really late, somewhere in his mid-twenties if I recall properly. While he was definitely not a teenager, his experience was similar to that of one.

I do not know much about Harrison career. However, he is the perfect example of briliant amateur who completely failed as a pro. There are golden medalists like Ali, Foreman or Wlad who did well in pro boxing... but there are also others like Tillman or Gonzalez (or lately Harrison). Those guys had beaten Bowe, Tyson and Lewis as amateurs, but otherwise had little success as pros.

My point was is that (1) amateur success is not automatically translated into pro and (2) that would be even more pronounced in case of fighters who were amateurs only by name.

 

The reason they are not criticised is because they did step into the ring with more experienced, bigger and better fighters during their pro careers so we know how they handle those situations, their amateur careers are rarely mentioned. Lewis beating Bowe would be the exception.

I dont believe Stevenson would even be mentioned had Vytotsky fought at the 76 games as Cuba were set to sit Teofilo out and use Milyano Romero until Igor was withdrawn

 

I think
Stevenson could've been great. there were quite a few top notch trainers around at the time & if Brown or Clancy or someone of that caliber gets him, they can certainly work with his tools. He wouldn't have been all that rough of a diamond to polish. And the american prospects from that 72-76 timeframe did well as pro's with some polishing.

 

Ray Mercer's experience was not similar to that of a teenager. He was a Sgt in the US Army. He was a 27 year old man with the fully developed body of an adult.

The fact is that the way a fighter is moved by their management is almost as important as their ability. The pattern is there for anyone who wants to follow it.

You have got to be matched tough in order to get tough. No Olympic champions first tough match-up should be in a title fight. We saw the writing on the wall for many of the failures you and the others have mentioned.

No one with any sense would have thrown Stevenson in with Ali or Savon in with Tyson for their pro debuts. But there is no way they should have turned pro after their second or third Olympics either.

 

Rarely mentioned? Their amatuer careers get mentioned everytime they are introduced before a fight!

You want to speculate about Stevenson and Vytotsky? Igor Vytotsky could have been cut to ribbons by the 1st one-two anyone landed on him.

So IMO there was plenty of question about what could have happened without commie interferrence.

But I have already stated that Stevenson should have turned pro after the 72 Olympics. The fights with Vytotsky came after.

 

I meant they are rarely mentioned in talking about their merits as fighters in hypothetical matches.

Had Stevenson turned pro in 72 as a 20-21 year old he could potentially have been very good. The problem i see with him is that he didnt really change much throughout his career. We cant be sure he was capable of changing or whether he didnt because he didnt have to. He would be forced to cope with many different styles through 72-84. Guys like Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Norton, Quarry, Lyle, Shavers, Holmes, Young, Cooney, both Spinks brothers were all around through the period he would have fought.

 

Teo's brief performance against John Tate is tantalizing. Big John started out putting pressure on Stevenson, and the Cuban responded with a fine piece of ring generalship, giving ground until he could draw Tate into his right hand. (Of course Tate succeeded Ali for the WBA Title.)

In Munich, he came from behind to avenge his loss to Bobick at the Pan Am Games, showing the patience and confidence despite that loss to wait until the right moment for an opening. (He did not stop Bobick by catching him cold, as Norton and Tate later did, but got him after Duane was warmed up.)

Stevenson had height, reach, mobility and composure to go along with that single shot rifle of a right hand. His ability to take a punch appears to have been sufficient enough. (I don't recall seeing him take any standing eight counts.)

While it could be argued that his offensive arsenal consisted of little more than a great right, the same could be said of Johansson and Coetzee, so that alone might have taken him a long way.

Ken Norton would have been demolished by that right. Ditto Leon Spinks. If Stevenson had turned professional after Munich, he might have been poised to become the premiere heavyweight of the late 1970s, when there wouldn't have been a great deal of daunting resistance. (Jimmy Young could have proved to be a big headache for him though, but that was true for much of Young's opposition.)

Considering how far Tate got, an alphabet title is a reasonable assumption for Stevenson. He was a defending Gold Medalist in Montreal and Moscow, yet prevailed with that target on his chest. Other Americans who defeated Cuban opposition in Montreal went on to sterling professional careers.

 

he would have been ok, but no a wrecking ball like people think.