The 10 greatest amateurs since 1970 are?

Felix Savon (358-17) (Gold x3) (Silver)
Teofilo Stevenson (302-22) (Gold x3)
Terry Norris (291-4)
Virgil Hill (250-11)
Mike McCallum (240-10)
Kennedy McKinney (214-13)
Aaron Pryor (204-16)
Tommy Morrison (202-20)
Pernell Whitaker (201-13) (Gold)

Vasyl Lomachenko (396-1) ( Gold x2) (Gold x2, Silver)
Guillermo Rigondeaux (374-12) (Gold x2) (Gold x2)
Gennady Golovkin (345-5) (Silver) (Gold)
Ismail Sillakh (302-16) (Silver)
Matt Korobov (300-12) (Gold)
Adrien Broner (300-19)
Volodymyr Sydorenko (290-20)
Chris Byrd (275-19) (Silver)
Kostya Tszyu (259-11)
Sven Ottke (256-47-5)
Stevie Johnston (260-13)
Shane Mosley (250-16)
Lucian Bute (235-15)
Odlanier Solís (227-14) (Gold)
Vernon Forrest (225-15)
Oscar De La Hoya (223-5) (Gold)
Andre Dirrell (210-26) (Bronze)
Jeff Lacy (209-12)
Vassiliy Jirov (207-10) (Gold)

This is Felix Savon a top heavyweight amateur from 1987-2000. He probably wouldn't beat Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Ri**** Bowe, Wlad, or Vitaly Klitschko. But he might have had a shot to beat champions Tony Tucker, Buster Douglas, Tommy Morrison, Herbie Hide, George Foreman, and Bruce Seldon. He holds three Olympic Gold medals, though it should be noted that Mike Tyson and Vitaly Klitschko didn't go to the Olympics, while Lennox Lewis, Rid**** Bowe, and Wladimir Klitschko competed in the higher division of super heavyweight during this time.

Savon was world amateur heavyweight champion 6 times, won the Pan Am games 3 times, Central American Games 4 times, and 4 times won the world cup.

Opponents you might have heard of include future pro champion Ruslan Chagaev, whom Savon both won and lost against.
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Future WBO champ Sultan Ibragimov whom Savon beat.
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Future lineal heavyweight champ Shannon Briggs, whom Savon beat.
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Future WBO champ Lamon Brewster, whom Savon beat.
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Future contender David Tua, whom Savon beat.
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And Odlanier Solis who defeated Savon twice, and lost once to him.

 

This is Mario Kindelan, another Cuban. He won gold medals at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. He holds amateur victories over future champions Felix Trinidad, Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan, and Andreas Kotelnik. 3 time world champion, 2 time Pan Am champion, 2 time Central American champion. His amateur record is 358-22.

Kindelan vs Khan
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Kindelan vs Kotelnik
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His best years were 1999-2004 when he went on an undefeated streak. If he'd gone pro during that period he would have likely faced Jose Luis Castillo, Floyd Mayweather, Paul Spadafora, or Artur Grigorian at the top. Mayweather and Castillo he might not get past, but the other two are possible.

Ariel Hernandez was a Cuban boxer in the middleweight division who won Olympic gold in 92 and 96. He won the world championships twice, Pan Am games once, and Central American games twice. He had wins over Chris Byrd and Sven Ottke. He was best between '92 and '98. That means to be champ he'd have to face the likes of Roy Jones Jr, James Toney, Bernard Hopkins, William Joppy, and John David Jackson. Those first three are a pretty tall order.
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The dominant light heavyweight amateur of the 1980s was Cuban Pablo Romero who beat Evander Holyfield at the Pan American Games.
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Teofilo Stevenson beat future heavyweight champion Big John Tate in the amateurs.
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Stevenson beat several talented Americans such as Duane Bobick
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Or Tyrell Biggs
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but he lost to future WBO heavyweight champ Francesco Damiani
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Teofilo won 3 Olympic Gold medals, three amateur world championships, and three Pan American games, but a Soviet boxer Igor Vysotsky beat Stevenson both times they met.
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Besides stopping Stevenson, Vysotsky also stopped future heavyweight pro champion Tony Tubbs, although he also lost to future heavyweight pro champion Greg Page. In 1978, at the tale end of his career, an old out of shape Muhammad Ali sparred three top Soviet amateurs back to back as an exhibition match and Vysotsky was the third among them.
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Stevenson probably could have beaten this version of Ali, since Leon Spinks just had, but Stevenson probably would have struggled quite a bit more against George Foreman or Larry Holmes who were the best American heavyweights at this time.

 

1. Vasyl Lomachenko
2. Teofilo Stevenson
3. Felix Savon
4. Lazlo Papp
5. Mario Kindelan
6. Guillermo Rigondeaux
7. Ariel Hernandez
8. Harry Mallin
9. Hector Vinent
10. Serik Sapiyev

Julio Cesar La Cruz will be top 10 if he wins Gold at Rio.

 

The Val Barker Trophy is given to the boxer voted best at each Olympic Games. It might be a valid barometer for who was the greatest amateur boxer in the world at any given time.

1972 Munich Teofilo Stevenson CUB Heavyweight Gold
1976 Montréal Howard Davis, Jr. USA Lightweight Gold
1980 Moscow Patrizio Oliva ITA Light Welterweight Gold
1984 Los Angeles Paul Gonzales USA Light Flyweight Gold
1988 Seoul Roy Jones, Jr. USA Light Middleweight Silver
1992 Barcelona Roberto Balado CUB Super Heavyweight Gold
1996 Atlanta Vassiliy Jirov KAZ Light Heavyweight Gold
2000 Sydney Oleg Saitov RUS Welterweight Gold
2004 Athens Bakhtiyar Artayev KAZ Welterweight Gold
2008 Beijing Vasyl Lomachenko UKR Featherweight Gold
2012 London Serik Sapiyev KAZ Welterweight Gold

We've already gone over Teofilo Stevenson. Howard Davis Jr had an amateur record of 125–5. He won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, a gold medal at the 1974 World Championships. He holds victories over Aaron Pryor and Tommy Hearns. Here he is winning Olympic Gold:
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Unfortunately, he didn't amount to much in the professional ranks. He only went 36–6–1. Here's Buddy McGirt steamrolling him in one.
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That puts him in the same class as Ismail Sillakh who despite being 302-16 in the amateurs got knocked out in two against Sergey Kovalev. He actually went 1-1 against Beterbiev in the amateurs though.
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It's probably worth showing his fight with Korobov at the world championships since Korobov went 300-12 as an amateur winning world championships in 2005 and 2007 but getting his brain smashed in fighting Andy Lee as a pro.
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Here's Sillakh vs Kovalev
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And here's Korobov vs Lee
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IMHO (in no particular order):

Mario Kindelan
Guillermo Rigondeaux
Ariel Hernandez
Istvan Kovacs
Vasyl Lomachenko
Roberto Balado
Felix Savon
Hector Vinent
Teofilo Stevenson
....

:smoke

 

Mark Breland was a top amateur, only one loss I think , Gold in '84

 

Mark Breland has to be on this list. Isn't he the only 5-time NYGG champ? And gold in the Olympics, world championship as an amateur, 110-1 record.

 

:good:good

 

The lack of Andre Ward makes all these lists flawed.

 

Breland was a fine an outstanding amateur but so were many others. If you make a case for him in the top 10 then at the same time you can make a case for many, many others. Gamboa, Solis and Barthelemy just to name a few.

 

He could be arguably USA's amateur GOAT but there are many others who have achieved more than him on the elite world level, at the highest form of amateur competition.