The pro game is not the amateurs.

Spot on. A great amateur doesn't make a great pro.

No doubt there's been tons of world class fighters who haven't had really an amateur background/pedigree.

Great thread idea, mate!

 

the only thing Salido showed Vasyl is that you probebly shouldn't fight a guy 2 divisions out of your weight class when you go for a world title in your second fight and that you only get warned after you've low blowed your opponent 200 times in the amateurs . Even at that it was a debatable decision

Gavin has commitment issues

Golovkin is great

and Shiming was 10 years too old to turn pro in the division his in

the amateurs is becoming very like the pro game just look at WSB and apb pro boxing

 

heffron got beat by two undeafeted fighters and wasn't that highly heralded. British championships are a weakened competion anyway as none of the podium squad compete at it

Brook turned pro before he had a chance to do anything in the amateurs , if he did stay around he would have more than likely been a decorated amateur

 

the standard of wsb is higher than at least 90% of pro shows. And in fairness you have to even admit if Salido played by the rules he would have lost

true but theres also no point in holding fighters back and Loma learned more in 12 rounds with Salido than GRJ did in 20 something fights against bums

 

Depends on a boxer, but most of the established, renowned amateur champions who turn pro, manage to have success.

Of course, there are guys who had been successful amateurs but also heavily relied on the scoring system and the fact that they can't get hurt so easily. Those guys usually get exposed in the pro game. For that reason, a guy like Roberto Cammarelle would probably get stopped on his way to the top if he turned pro, especially because he is a heavyweight and that's where only one punch often changes everything.

Henry Maske somewhat resembles to this category, although his distance measuring was too good to be fatally caught, and his resistance was also good enough not to let him down.

However, there are top amateurs that are very well rounded and once they learn to pace for 12 rounds, they are on their way to success. What separates them from the others is not just skills, but also the knowledge of the game, and those are guys like Rigondeaux, Lara, Lomachenko, Usyk etc. Present amateurs like La Cruz, Alvarez and Ramirez also fall into that category.

Gamboa falls into the superb athletes category with skills (having gone through the Cuban boxing school), but not as much all-round knowledge as above mentioned guys. Even in the amateurs he was an all-action guy relying on his natural gifts with often tendency to trust his athletic ability too much instead of being intelligent, therefore he was never a defensive master. Eventually that tendency has turned against him versus a guy like Crawford. However, if the opponent doesn't have the power and doesn't find the timing to punish them, guys like Gamboa could be extremely difficult to deal with even for the master boxers.

There are also guys like who are very powerful in addition to being skilled and well rounded - Golovkin, Beterbiev, Kovalev (Golovkin being more well-rounded than the other two). Perhaps they are not as technically skilled as those mentioned on the top, but their power often makes up for that. Those guys usually adapt well to the pro game and their power really gets the attention. From the present amateurs, Majidov would fill the criteria.
Golovkin is actually a variation of this type as he has more to his game than Kovalev or Beterbiev for example.

Guys like Joe Ward don't belong in this category, because they aren't very well rounded and rely on power significantly more than the knowledge of the game. Joe would be a brawler with a bit of skills in the professionals, and would fall short against the elite guys who are more tactical and know how to pace themselves.

This is all of course somewhat generalizing, because pretty much every boxer is unique and there are many variations of each type or style. The bottom line is that most of the established successful amateurs continue their success in the pros, except for those guys who have been benefiting and heavily relying on the amateur system.

 

There's really no such thing as "amateur" boxing anymore, not at the elite level.
Anyone who is competing for medals at world championships is a full time athlete who is paid to fight.

Which sort of defeats the point if having olympic style boxing in a way.

There have been a few top class Olympic style boxers whove had a bad year. Damien Hooper,Tom Stalker and Frankie Gavin have not made a good transition.

 

to be fair hooper got caught cold

 

....by a complete pub fighter.

No one, who has dreams of making it to the top should be caught cold and knocked unconscious by some guy who probably has work the next day.

 

I think Salido showed that you can't simply jump from one to another arbitrarily, they are too different even for the most talented of fighters.

 

four fights later ….lomo would spank Salido i believe.