Olympic Gold Does Not Make a World Pro Boxing Champion
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 15 Aug 2024
First, a trivia: Who is the Olympic gold medal winner who fought and mostly beat the most number of fellow Olympic champions in his pro boxing career?
It was Cassius Clay better known Muhammad Ali in the pros who won the gold in the light heavyweights in 1960 Rome Olympics and the world heavyweight championship in 1964. Clay/Ali defeated in the pros Floyd Patterson, gold winner in the middleweight in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics; Joe Frazier, 1964 Tokyo Olympics heavyweight winner twice (1973 and 1975) after losing to him in their first fight in 1971; George Foreman, 1968 Mexico Olympics heavyweight champion in regaining the world heavyweight championship in 1974; and Leon Spinks, 1976 Montreal Olympics heavyweight gold medalist in becoming the first to become three time world heavyweight champion in 1978 after losing his title to him early the same year.
I have often hear of the beef that after (nearly) a hundred years in the Olympics, we have yet to win a gold in boxing.
We have come close to winning a men's boxing gold thrice, through Anthony Villanueva in 1964 Tokyo, Mansueto Onyok Velasco in 1996 Atlanta and Carlo Paalam in 2020 Tokyo. Nesthy Petecio actually also won silver medal in 2020 Tokyo bowing to a Japanese bet in the women's boxing featherweight.
I don't understand the fetish for boxing gold except of course the honor it brings to our boxing batty nation and the millions of pesos in incentives for the winner/s.
In my research, since the 1920s minus the hiatus brought about the war from 1939 to 1946 up to Tokyo 2020, there have been about a hundred Olympics gold medalists who became world pro boxing champions. This is about a half of the total number of boxing gold medalists that 19 Olympics had produced since the 1920s.
But set against about a thousand world champions produced in the period, the number paled in comparison. In fact, two countries-the US and Mexico alone had produced a combined 600 world champions which included a few of these Olympic gold medalists.
Since the ultimate destination of many of Olympic gold winners is the pros, it is really fair to say that Olympic gold do not translate to successful pro careers.
In fact, we have Manny Pacquiao who did not even reach as far as getting to the national pool in the amateurs became eight division world champion and famous by beating Olympics champion Oscar de la Hoya and fighting and mostly beating Olympians as Chatchai Sasakul, David Diaz, Miguel Cotto and Floyd Mayweather Jr
We also have Nonito Donaire who lost in the US Olympic trials to Brian Viloria but became four division world champion including at least three reigns at bantamweights.
As for foreign fighters, American Thomas Hearns was the most successful. He lost to Aaron Pryor in the US Olympic team qualifier finals but became five weight division world champion from welterweight to the light heavyweight.
For fighters who did not even reach the medal round, Puerto Rico's Wilfredo Gomez was the most successful, winning the world super bantamweight championship and holding it for more than five years, suffering his first pro defeat at the hands of Salvador Sanchez when he challenged him for his world featherweight championship in 1982. Gomez also won world titles at featherweight and super featherweight.
Gennadiy Golovkin who just won the silver in the middleweights in the 2004 Athens Olympics, became a unified and later undisputed world middleweight champion and among the feared fighters in his prime. He also won a world title at light heavyweight.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. won just the bronze at featherweight in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics but became a five division world champion with two terms at welterweight and light middleweight and retired undefeated with a 50-0 record surpassing Rocky Marciano.
Among the more recent American Olympians, Shakur Stevenson who won only silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics is already a three weight division world champion from featherweight to lightweight in just 22 pro bouts and still undefeated.
No surprise if Shakur becomes a four weight division world champion at super lightweight this year.
The US team has won only two medals in the last two Olympics through Keyshawn Davis (silver at lightweight in Tokyo 2020) and Omari Jones, bronze medalist at welterweight in the last Paris Olympics
I wont be surprised if any or both of the two will become world champions in the pros ahead of their contemporary Olympic gold medalists.
It took five tries before Rio 2016 lightweight gold medalist Robson Coceicao of Brazil to win a world title in the pros at super featherweight this year and yet many believed his points win over O'Shaquie Foster was highly controversial. On the other hand, UK's Joe Cordina who reached only as far as the quarterfinals, won a world championship well ahead of him.
Enough said.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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