Amateur and professional boxing: two completely different sports according to a whole heap of experts. Yet it can be argued that without a solid amateur foundation, no boxer can be fully prepared to make it to the top of the paid pile.
There are exceptions of course (more about this later) but most boxing greats at world title level forged their craft at unpaid level; this in various tournaments, including the ultimate – the Olympic Games – and this served them oh, so well when they began punching for pay.
Without further ado, here are some simply incredible amateur records, compiled by some of the sport’s true greats:
Pernell Whitaker – 201 wins, 13 defeats
Roy Jones Jr – 121 wins, 13 defeats
Mark Breland – 110 wins, 1 defeat
Erik Morales – 108 wins, 6 defeats
Oscar De La Hoya – 223 wins, 5 defeats
Sugar Ray Robinson, 85 wins, 0 defeats
Kid Chocolate – 100 wins, 0 defeats
Floyd Mayweather Jr – 84 wins, 6 defeats
Muhammad Ali – 100 wins, 5 defeats (or, 99-8, 134-7)
Donald Curry – 400 wins, 4 defeats
Laszlo Papp – 301 wins, 12 defeats
Kennedy McKinney – 214 wins, 13 defeats
Vitali Klitschko – 195 wins, 15 defeats
Evander Holyfield – 160 wins, 14 defeats
Marco Antonio Barrera – 56 wins, 4 defeats
Vasiliy Lomachenko – 396 wins, 1 defeat
Guillermo Rigondeaux – 374 wins,12 defeats
Gennady Golovkin – 345 wins, 5 defeats
Odlanier Solis – 227 wins, 14 defeats
Some truly impressive, indeed in some cases, mind-boggling numbers. However, some great fighters showed a quite astonishing ability to reach the top of the mountain having had a mere handful of fights in comparison.
Look at these limited amateur records:
George Foreman – 16 wins, 4 defeats
Larry Holmes – 19 wins, 3 defeats
Roberto Duran – 29 wins, 3 defeats (or 13 wins, 3 defeats)
Pinklon Thomas – 3 amateur fights
Tim Witherspoon – 5 amateur fights
Truly amazing when we consider how much each of these guys accomplished at pro level. But then what of the greats who had NO amateur fights!
Dwight Muhammad Qawi – zero amateur fights
Bernard Hopkins – zero amateur fights
Billy Conn – zero amateur fights
It just goes to show that fighters can come from wholly different backgrounds. So what makes the greater fighter – an accomplished amateur career, or a limited amateur career (less wear and tear but also less experience)? While some special ones can do it with NO amateur career.
Interesting stuff, I hope you agree.
Have I missed out any remarkable amateur boxing records?