Why did Teofilo Stevenson never go pro?

Stevenson = Solis.

 

He was a great amateur, but being a great amateur doesn't necessarily cut it.There were a couple of people he couldn't beat in or near his prime, and he got a few gift decisions as it was.

 

Stevenson would have had to defect from Cuba to turn pro.
Castro would have taken it out on his family.

 

He was too smart !

 

As an amateur yes.
Had he come north and turned pro, maybe his 'jab-right hand only' skiills could have been polished.
He grew up with the 'honeybee, worker ant' socialist mindset. He was 'brainwashed' early on. He could have been a great pro heavy in the right hands. Lots of free-market fighters go broke, lots don't.
With all due respect Unforgiven, spare me the Howard Zinn version of revisionist history from a Marxist standpoint.

 

mcvey, you took the words right out of my brain. yes, he was begging the interviewer for money indirectly!!

 

Hi Unforgiven! No, if we had time I would engage the 'commie flight attendent' (without pushing her as the big bad TS did) in a discussion on her beliefs. Yes, I do have some emotion invested. My wife, a LCSW, had a birthday party (her 50th) six years ago and her co-worker, who helped me plan the event gave her a Howard Zinn history book? for her birthday present as a slap in my face! Not a gift card. Not a nice blouse. When I asked her about it (full of levity) at the resturant she ruined my wife's special nite by getting in my face and verbally attacking me. Yes, it's personal and sad that so many 40 and under students view Zinn's almost rock-star status as their compass of American 'history'?
One of my fav cliches is: The problem with Capitalism is greedy Capitalists. The problem with Socialism is...Socialism. I'm a registered Democrat who's sick and tired of how far left the party has moved. Either the Dem's move back towards the center or the GOP comes up with some ideas (Jack Kemp had his inner-city ecomonmic empowerment plan ready to go 20 years ago and the brain dead Demos threw him on the trash heap.
Back to thread...TS Could have been a great one except for all the previous reasons mentioned.