Quote Originally Posted by p4pking View Post
I said often because some Cubans have defected in recent years, understand that stuff. Yes hockey is rough of course, but it's still not the sole object of the game to hurt the other players, and there are a far greater number of elite pros compared to boxing, as there is in any team sport. It's also a pretty limited number of countries that typically do well, if Russia was set to play Fiji I wouldn't be terribly interested in that either, but boxing is very international. I said I don't follow the amateurs so I'm pleading ignorance here, but how could they simply "not allow" fights to take place, if that's otherwise how the format would work? Doesn't that just cause more problems? Would they make an established pro exempt from having to qualify the way anyone else would, etc?
OK, follow me on this ....Felix Savon WAS a "professional amateur boxer" the same way that the USSR had "professional amateur hockey players". Those guys never had jobs outside of their sports, they never wanted for anything, they were housed, they were fed, they were allowed to train 24/7 and focus on their respective sports, they were given the best equipment, the best coaches none of which THEY had to pay for.....how is that not "professional"?!?!?! What is that if not the life of a professional athlete

Think about this for a second, there's no threshold for professional boxers, Mullet Boxer wasn't an amateur boxer, why allow guys who can't even fight to box professionally without headgear, without a referee who is legitimately focused on safety first?