Thread: Fighters who excelled quickly

Name fighters who went through the ranks quickly without much experience.

George Foreman: only fought for a few years and won the Olympics then fought 3 more years and won the HW title. He hadn't been boxing long at all (comparatively) at the time he was thought to be unstoppable.

Billy Conn: started at the age of 16 with no amateur experience and fought his way through tough fighters to win the light HW title at age 21. He then fought Joe Louis at 23 being outweighed by 25 pounds and got knocked out at the end while being ahead on the scorecards. It's pretty amazing since he really hadn't boxed for that long and was just thrown to the wolves at the beginning of his career.

Who else?

Oscar fought some tough dudes relatively early and quick.

Vasyl Lomachenko - won WBO international featherweight title in 1st pro fight, wins WBO Featherweight Title in 3rd fight, less than a year into career.

Leon Spinks - beats Muhammad Ali and becomes undisputed HW champ after 8 fights and one year into his pro career.

Mike Tyson - undisputed world champ a year and a half into his pro career.

Ray Leonard - WBC WW Champ a little over 2 years into his career.

Oscar De La Hoya - WBO Super Featherweight champ after 12 fights - less than a year and a half into his pro career.

Theme here (with the exception of Mike Tyson)... strong amateur background + Olympic Gold

Naoya inoue, Kosei Tanaka, Joichiro Tatsutoshi, Nobuo Nashiro, Yoko Gushiken, Sot Chitlada, Saensak Muangsurin, Veeraphol Sahaprom

Cassius Clay would have beaten Floyd Patterson for the HW title if given the opportunity..

This guy fought 75 times while still in high school. After leaving high school one year he traveled the USA from coast to coast beating up all the local champions fighting 33 times with no defeats. Just over a year later he did it again but not by bus and fought 57 times with only 1 draw against. A year after that he fought 38 times in the calender winning all but a couple by ko. Any idea who?

I'd call that pedal to the metal.

Originally Posted by IamInuit

Any idea who?

No clue.

My guess is Archie Moore..

Originally Posted by Beanflicker

Vasyl Lomachenko - won WBO international featherweight title in 1st pro fight, wins WBO Featherweight Title in 3rd fight, less than a year into career.

Leon Spinks - beats Muhammad Ali and becomes undisputed HW champ after 8 fights and one year into his pro career.

Mike Tyson - undisputed world champ a year and a half into his pro career.

Ray Leonard - WBC WW Champ a little over 2 years into his career.

Oscar De La Hoya - WBO Super Featherweight champ after 12 fights - less than a year and a half into his pro career.

Theme here (with the exception of Mike Tyson)... strong amateur background + Olympic Gold

How about people without much of an amateur background?

Originally Posted by powerpuncher

How about people without much of an amateur background?

Ahhh...

How about Wilfredo Vazquez Jr, started training in his early 20s and went pro with no amateur career. Won the Latino super bantamweight belt 2 years into his career and won the Super Bantamweight belt 3 years, 18 fights into his pro career.

Kermit Cintron was another guy who didn't start boxing until 20 and had less than 30 amateur fights, won a welterweight title 3 years in or so.

Pac was another guy with hardly any amateur background who won a world title 3 years in or so. Duran beat Buchanan 4 years in with hardly any amateur bouts. I think Duran said in an interview he was terrible as an amateur.

Jeff Fenech rushed into it. Two regional belts and two division champ within two years.

Quick as in pro-to-title I got Holyfield.
1st fight he went against Byharm considered a state champ. 12th fight An actual title Qawi.

None of his 11 fights were against those 0-1 type opponent.

Canelo!

What is he like 24/25 with something near 45/50 fights?

Wilfred Benitez?

Originally Posted by boxing prospect

Naoya inoue, Kosei Tanaka, Joichiro Tatsutoshi, Nobuo Nashiro, Yoko Gushiken, Sot Chitlada, Saensak Muangsurin, Veeraphol Sahaprom

Dont forget that many of the Thai fighters had years and years of professional Muay Thai experience, though. They were good crossover athletes, but it's pushing it to say they were inexperienced in the ring or excelled as quickly as a non Muay Thai guy