I was looking at one of the troll threads started by some dip**** trying to wind people up over nationalism and the Olympics, when I started wondering what proportion of our best pros were actually Olympians? So, I checked boxrec and only about 5 of their top 20 p4p were Olympians and I started writing down names of who did and didn't go to the Olympics. Olympians Golovkin Klitschko Khan Povetkin Ward Lomachenko Rigondeaux Shiming Gamboa Dirrell Solís DeGale Wilder Usyk Joshua Andrade Cotto Vargas Non-Olympians Pacquiao Gonzalez Alvarez Fury Kovalev Crawford Thurman Lara Bradley Stevenson Brook Porter Garcia Frampton Postol Jacobs Santa Cruz Donaire Uchiyama Broner Ortiz Drozd As far as the US goes, the only Olympians we have to boast of are Ward, Direll, Wilder, and Andrade. Of those four, Ward and Andrade are inactive, while Wilder is warm garbage. But there are some rays of light coming from the Non-Olympians: Crawford, Thurman, Bradley, Porter, Garcia, Jacobs, Donaire, and Broner. If we look at just the p4p top ten of the last few decades we get: 2000s 1. Manny Pacquiao 2. Floyd Mayweather Jr. 3. Bernard Hopkins 4. Erik Morales 5. Joe Calzaghe 6. Juan Manuel Marquez 7. Roy Jones Jr. 8. Marco Antonio Barrera 9. Rafael Marquez 10. Pongsaklek Wonjongkam Of that group, I think that only Mayweather and Jones Jr went to the Olympics. 1990s 1. Pernell Whitaker 2. Roy Jones Jr. 3. James Toney 4. Evander Holyfield 5. Julio Cesar Chavez 6. Bernard Hopkins 7. Felix Trinidad 8. Ricardo Lopez 9. Oscar De La Hoya 10. Terry Norris In the 90s Whitaker, Jones Jr, Holyfield, and De La Hoya went to the Olympics but the rest did not. Come to think of it, Mexico seems to do really well in the pros but isn't known for their Olympic prowess. 1980s 1. Sugar Ray Leonard 2. Marvin Hagler 3. Salvador Sanchez 4. Michael Spinks 5. Tommy Hearns 6. Julio Cesar Chavez 7. Mike Tyson 8. Aaron Pryor 9. Larry Holmes 10. Jeff Chandler I think only Leonard and Spinks went to the games of that bunch.
It helps some develop better skills against different styles around the world and then some of them take off the head gear and can't manage.
this is a ridiculous statement, not good enough to be olympians? being an olympian is not a mark of your quality as a boxers. Oceania,african and asian in the higher weight catogories dont even have to be that good to get to the olympics because there is a lot of quota places on continents where the boxing quality is poor the cuban or russian 4th choice boxer is better than 80% of the people in his weight catogory that gets to the olympics, being a top quality amateur is a good judge of amateur pedigree, being an olympian isnt as europeans have to go through hell to get to the olympics, while an austrailian willl have to beat one guy from an island with a population of 20,000 to get to the olympics
of the non olympians il break them down for you Pacquiao - turned pro at 15 ffs Gonzalez - again turned pro at 18 Alvarez - turned pro at 14 Fury - harder to qualify from europe(behind olympic bronze medalist price) fury was better than 90% of the guys who went to the olympics that year Kovalev - was behind atg beterbiev,kovalev was better than 95% of guys who went to the olympics Crawford - beaten in the trials maybe? Thurman - beaten in the trials/ Lara - was behing atg lorenzo aragon,lara would have won the olympics, turned pro befroe 2008 Stevenson - jail and being too green ruled out 2004,turned pro before 2008 Brook - turned pro at 18, was a very good underage amatuer Porter - didnt make the olympics, i remember him being sparked out by a cuban Garcia - was a great amatuer but turned pro before the olympics Frampton- had to qualify from europe, was quiet young too, very difficult to qualify from europe Postol - again wasnt the first choice ukrainian, they have strength in depth Jacobs - turned pro young and just wasnt good enough Santa Cruz - turned pro very young Donaire - turned pro very young Uchiyama - japanese dont usually do well in the am's Broner - turned pro very young Ortiz - turned pro very young Drozd - was better than 90% of olympians but unforutetly was the 3rd choice russian
Timing is a pretty big issue when making the Olympic committment. Going years without income makes it pretty big gamble.
