Was Pete Rademacher poorly managed?

This is wishful thinking at best. Again, he was nearly 30 when he turned pro. A slower progression would have been career suicide. Floyd Patterson was moved along what was considered extremely fast at the time and it took him four years to get a title shot. That puts Rademacher at 33 years old if he could even make it to a title shot (not likely) on a trajectory that would have seemed fast at the time. So no, he not only knew exactly what he was doing but it was uncanny that he pulled it off the way he did and squeezed what he could out of his potential. Comparing his career trajectory to other HW gold medalists ignores the fact that Patterson was 17 when he turned pro, Ali was 18, Frazier was 21, and Foreman was 20. Each of those guys was nearly a decade younger than Rademacher was when they all turned pro respectively. They had the luxury of time that he didnt. A better comparison might be Audley Harrison who turned pro at 30, never developed, never became a serious world title contender, and watched his career essentially hit a wall and thats in an era when fighters got big money and title shots a hell of a lot quicker than the half century earlier when Rademacher turned pro, meaning Harrison actually had an easier path and more financial cushioning to take his career as slow as some here have suggested Rademacher should have.

 

Precisely why I ended my paragraph with the words “ But this is speculation. “

 

Pete wasn't a bad guy, he wasn't badly managed, he wasn't a bad story teller either, not even a bad fighter.

He won gold at the Olympics and got a shot at the title he's now immortalised in history while making a good living and came out with fantastic tales, wealth and health.

I wouldn't hesitate to swap life trajectories with the man to win a gold at the Olympics and have at the champion of the world brutal knockout or not.

 

I didn’t realise he was still with us. Glad to hear that actually.

He achieved in his first fight what plenty of other, far greater fighters couldn’t in getting a title shot for the HW championship of the world. That’s a damn amazing feat of management actually. The fact his brief career petered out is neither here nor there. He had a shot at the ultimate prize and that he had had a long and seemingly happy life is just gravy on top of it.

Look at the post boxing lives of the Monzons, Benitez’s and even Ali. The line between boxing’s winners and losers can be a blurred one.

 

Relative to his ability I think he maxed out on earnings. If he was exposed early on vs a journeyman or two, he's done for. But he got big money fights early,

We are not talking about Jimmy Young, now there's a guy who could have been guided better.