Instances of famous people who had great amateur careers

Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff, former England cricketer, turned pro for one fight as part of a TV series. Got dropped early but won on points.

 

Michael Flatley had a short amateur career and competed in the Chicago Golden Gloves in 1975.

Apparently his coach was impressed with his punching technique but said he needed to go away and concentrate on his footwork.

 

Haha. Wow, I never knew that - Lord of the Dance was also Lord of the Ring. I wouldn’t have guessed that one at all.

 

Yeah, I saw that - quite the achievement. Idris Elba did something similar but it was kick boxing.

 

It used to be rumoured that Boy George - real name George O’Dowd - used to box (framing for quite the contrast) but it was one of his several brothers who boxed am under the family name O’Dowd.

How could BG have ever boxed given that he sang: Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? LOL.

 

I'm actually reading a terrific biography on him ... he was a complex, interesting badass for sure ..

 

If I ever get time to read again, I would like to read that.

 

French actor Oliver Martinez boxed amateur I read somewhere? The footballer Justin Fashanu boxed as a amateur and was reputed to be quite promising? He choose football over boxing his life and career might have been very different had he stuck with boxing. His brother John Fashanu was a black belt in Karate and used to use a lot his moves as Wimbledon player while playing for the crazy gang Lol.

 

Yes it turned out to be a load of Hong Kong Phooey