Most Important Amateur Fight Of All Time?

i'm not an amateur expert and this is probably a shitty pick but there was a lot of buzz around breland's final golden gloves fight. he'd dominated three in a row and he was already pegged to head to the olympics with the final win. he blew out his opponent, went on to the win the gold, and likely became the greatest american am of all time

 

Roy Jones vs Park si Hun is worth a mention. It changed amatuer boxing, moved it further away from the pro game and perhaps did irreparable damage. Almost got it kicked out of the olympics too.

 

Who is to say, but in 1959 Cassius Clay fought the highly touted Aussie Tony Madigan for the AAU Lh title at MSG, which I attended. Clay [Ali] later, eeked out a CLSE decision from Tony Madigan. It is POSSIBLE that were Clay to have lost this bout, he would not have gotten the financial backing of the Louisville Syndicate, and boxing history would have been altered greatly...
P.S. My dad and I,as were the rest of the crowd that night in 1959, never envisioned
that this thinnish Clay would become a Heavyweight ICON. Years later we thought Mark Breland's right hand would carry Breland to the top of the Pro's... La Forza Del Destino...

 

Going in, Teo Stevenson-John Tate was a huge showdown, perhaps the most hyped amateur bout before the fact in Olympic history.

 

:huh

It was just a typical olympic homecountry robbery.Revenge for the homecooking of 84.

 

The point is, that robbery had a massive impact on the sport. As the scoring system was changed soon after and it effected how amateurs turning over adapted to the pro ranks.

 

The Jones, Jr. - Park Si Hun fight was a great pick.

I also think the Lennox Lewis - Riddick Bowe fight was very important because it altered boxing in the 90s to some degree. Rock Newman never would allow that mega fight, I think in part because of what he had seen in that amateur bout. Hence, the best two heavyweights of the 90s never fought. Too bad.

 

How about Pep and Robinson cuz of who they'd become, Trickster? Not sure what you mean though exactly.

 

Wow, you saw Tony Madigan fight :shock: Madigan went on to become a very successful businessman and whenever he's mentioned these days here in Oz his fights with Clay are also invariably brought up

 

stevenson bobick III

 

****ing whining yanks.

Yeah i can see why you would mention it from that perspective.I'm just so used to seeing it brought up as it it was some out of the ordinary injustice.

 

Amateur boxing is abysmal nowadays.

I'll go for Muangsurin winning the Asian games by clobbering someone upside the head as it convinced him taking up International Boxing was a good idea.

 

Lewis-Bowe big at the time but retrospectively more so. Tyszu-Forrest for a great amateur win, although Vernon was only 20 and Tyszu 22