Thread: Non-US Olympic Boxers

I curious, how many non-US Olympic boxers have made any impact in professional boxing?

Seems like we watch many US boxers of the past that have had a huge impact. examples: Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones Jr. but aside from England and a few Cubans, I don't recall any other Olympic boxers even turning to Professional Boxing. One would think that the kind of Paydays US Gold Medal winners have had that it would draw more elite competition from other countries into the Professional Ranks.

Perhaps the life is so bad for most in other countries that Olympic training and competition is their career choice?

Apart from Cubans that went pro like Casamayor, the only one that comes to mind is Vassily Jirov, I think he was a gold medalist although I may be wrong. Silver medalists who've done well that come to mind are John Mugabi, Kotelnik & Wayne McCullough, although there's probably a lot more

Lennox anyone

Originally Posted by Spicoli surfs 'Nawlins

Lennox anyone

Lol, yeah that should have been a bate one, I was... err counting him under the British boxers

Originally Posted by JazMerkin

Originally Posted by Spicoli surfs 'Nawlins

Lennox anyone

Lol, yeah that should have been a bate one, I was... err counting him under the British boxers

He was going for the International tri-fecta Lol .The man with many countries.

Henry Maske who won gold for E.Germany in 1988 (Middleweight) and went on to become IBF Light Hevyweight champ making 10 defences I think.

Wladimir Klitschko :S he's not doing too badly these days. He won gold in 1996 I think. Povetkin was gold medal winner too although he hasn't done anything yet.

And of course Audley Harrison

Originally Posted by palmerq

Wladimir Klitschko :S he's not doing too badly these days. He won gold in 1996 I think. Povetkin was gold medal winner too although he hasn't done anything yet.

And of course Audley Harrison

Yep. You took klitschko from my mouth.

Originally Posted by iwng100

Originally Posted by palmerq

Wladimir Klitschko :S he's not doing too badly these days. He won gold in 1996 I think. Povetkin was gold medal winner too although he hasn't done anything yet.

And of course Audley Harrison

Yep. You took klitschko from my mouth.

Cue Violent D..............

Originally Posted by palmerq

Wladimir Klitschko :S he's not doing too badly these days. He won gold in 1996 I think. Povetkin was gold medal winner too although he hasn't done anything yet.

To stay in HW, Sultan Ibragimov won an Olympic (silver) medal. David Tua was a medallist too. Ruslan Chagaev and Sam Peter participated, but lost early. Whether you count them or not is another thing, but they did make a name for themselves, I guess.

Then there are a few Puerto Ricans too like Ivan Calderon, Daniel Santos or Miguel Cotto.

Originally Posted by Mikkel_K

Originally Posted by palmerq

Wladimir Klitschko :S he's not doing too badly these days. He won gold in 1996 I think. Povetkin was gold medal winner too although he hasn't done anything yet.

To stay in HW, Sultan Ibragimov won an Olympic (silver) medal. David Tua was a medallist too. Ruslan Chagaev and Sam Peter participated, but lost early. Whether you count them or not is another thing, but they did make a name for themselves, I guess.

Then there are a few Puerto Ricans too like Ivan Calderon, Daniel Santos or Miguel Cotto.

Yeah, there are obviously a load of guys who've had good careers who've just been to the Olympics, I assumed he only meant guys who were either Gold or Silver medalists as he mentioned ODLH & RJJ

The great Laszlo Papp.
The man was not allowed to fight for a title by his gov. but he didn't need to he was great without the belt.

Originally Posted by CutMeMick

The great Laszlo Papp.
The man was not allowed to fight for a title by his gov. but he didn't need to he was great without the belt.

That's an impressive digg...

Since we see so many of US based Olympic medal winners that have had a huge impact on the sport, List of Olympic medalists in boxing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I was just thinking there is a lot of untapped talent from other countries that Promoters haven't dug into. It's just a thought I had and I wanted to explore it a bit. Looking at the responses I received so far it seems to support my theory. I find this quite surprising actually.

Not so much in the lower weights probably due to money but Golota, Tua, Ibragimov all medaled and I didn't know this until just recently when he died but Ingomar Johansson was a silver medalist.

I really wish the Cubans could turn pro and I would love to know what all those guys from Thailand do after their Olympic runs if they don't turn pro.