Félix Savón: How Good A Pro Would He Have Made?

Cuba, what the hell.

Denying pro fight fans of three time Olympic gold medalists is just wrong.

He avenged all his amateur defeats, and there weren't many, and he won everything in the amateurs over and over. How good would he have been in the pro's? We'll never know, but one thing is for sure. The p4p list would look a hell of a lot different if Cubans were allowed to box professionally in America without having to risk their lives to get there and defect.

Thoughts?

You would have to think he would have been very good Davide, the thing you have to remember is the amateur game was a lot different than it is now, no head guard, no useless computer scoring, no pillow gloves refs not as quick to issue a standing eight the minute someone gets hit above the waist. Given this far easier to make the transition into the pros. For me impossible to acheive all Savon did in the amateur game of the time without having the ability to make a huge impact in the pro game

Not sure about that rowley, I think Savons career, majority of it at least, would have been carried out under the amateur conditions with we know today. I think it was actually Savons first Olympics that the computerised scoring was introduced and they definately had headgear etc back then.

I think its really hard to say how he would have fared as a pro. The temptation is to think his amateur success would have transferred but the differences in both style and standard between the amateur and pro game is huge.

He beat some guys that would go on to be decent pros like Briggs, Brewster, Ibragimov etc but also lost to guys like Chagaev and Solis who are pros now.

I also think the Cubans traditionally held an advantage in the amateur game because they stayed amateur their whole careers. Thus somebody like Savon was a highly experienced amateur who fought into his thirties while most other amateurs were far less experienced and much younger. Khan v Kindelan for example, a 17 year old kid up against a 30 year old amateur veteran. Big advantage for Kindelan. Had the Cubans all gone pro more then the liklihood is it would be prospect v prospect more often rather than guys like Savon being up against young and less expeirienced amateurs.

Assuming Savon went pro after he won gold in Barcelona you would think he would have emerged on the pro scene as a contender around the mid 1990s mark. Bowe would be gone by then, Lewis was still yet to peak and Holyfield and Tyson were about to have their fights.

good points manos, its impossible to say. Likewise with stevenson... who might, though be a better comparison for rowley's point.

He has beaten so many pro fighters when they were amateurs themselves so he probably would have been very good. He had everything needed to be a great heavyweight

Big question mark was how he would deal with a 12 rounder though as some fighters can do v well over 3 rounds but not do well over 12

good points guys, especially that 12 round question, excellent point.

Very interesting question. I had never really considered that the Cubans never wont professional stange as it may seem! Now that you brought it up it seems obvous that the pro ranks have been missing out on some great fighters!

Cuba of course has a long history of succuss in amteur boxing and produced many fine athletes so it stands to reason that they would have had many champions if they had decided to go pro. If Savon was in the 1990s then it means he would have been in direct competition with Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis so he would have been unlucky to run into those guys. I think he would easily be the champion at the moment though given there are no real quality heavyweights around these days.

If Savon had fled Cuba and settled in America he would have ended up overweight and punched out. Class boxer and would have been a belt holder if he stayed focused. Excellent hand speed, very accurate, hard puncher and good combinations.

didn't Chagaev beat him in the late 90's