How much would things have changed if Cubans had been allowed to fight during the 60s-90s? I know there have been several Cuban world champions, but what if more had been allowed to go pro?
Teofilo Stevenson vs Ali was often talked about as a great fight that never happened. Stevenson said of going pro 'What is a million dollars against eight million Cubans who love me?'
Stevenson would have given Larry Holmes a great rival if Holmes had chosen not to duck him. Felix Savon would have picked up a version of the world title at some point.
The adjustment to the pace, the longer rounds, the investment to enable the required development to reach that level all takes time and finantial backing. Who is to say the established western profesional politics of world chamionship boxing and its fight centres would necessarily embrace cubans and Russians during the cold war? Amateur champions who have established themselves as greats within that code may have already spent too long as 3 round fighters. By the time an Olympian takes part in 3 or 4 games hes done anyway. There is no saying that the same 8 or 12 years would have been as productive as a pro without the grounding of one games like most champions of the pro code might have had? Teofilo Stevenson would have had to have turned pro after his first games to have been given a fair chance of making it as a pro champ, even then theres a lot to go wrong if you are not alighned with the right movers and shakers. To get near an aging Ali he would have to bypass or climb over a lot of great contenders like Lyle, Foreman, Norton, Frazier, shavers and co without any real proof that he could adapt to the required level. Likewise could an aging Ali adapt back to the 3 round code and win an olympics after so many years as a pro?
I agree. Ive never believed it was a given that Cuban amateur greats would be champions as pros. The amateurs and the pros got progressively different as time went by to the point where they are night and day now.
If no Castro, why would there be an amazing amateur programme? Cuba I suspect would of been like all the other Caribbean Countries as far as boxing went: The odd fighter of brilliance, but most that were any good would of gone to the States as youngsters.
Chocolate, Gavilan, Rodriguez, Sugar Ramos and Napoles would have more HOF company. Luis competed in Havana as late as May 1960, and a rematch between Gene Fullmer and Florentino Fernandez for Gene's MW title was proposed for Havana before Castro outlawed professional boxing. Paret's death certainly didn't help the cause there. If Fernandez had somehow been awarded Gene's MW Title in Ogden on August 5, 1961, or if Benny had dethroned him in December 1961 to become a dual division champion, professional boxing in Cuba might have gotten a reprieve. [And Fernandez defending the MW Title against WW Champion Paret in Havana might have been too big a carrot even for Castro's regime to pass up in late 1961.]
...though it might be a hoot to see prime amateur Solis vs. prime bare-knuckle Sullivan, under London Prize and/or modern amateur rule sets. :think
