Amazing Amateur, Not So Good As A Pro.

[locoxelbox]

I'm not so sure he was favored to win gold though and his style, being a tall, lanky southpaw was probably always going to suit him better in the amateurs. Banks lost clearly to the Cuban Mesa in their last bout and struggled heaps to even make the US team, winning controversially against Eddie Hopson shortly before Seoul.
His major wins came at home turf in close split decision wins at the World Championships and Pan am Games. John John Molina had also stopped him in the first round and at the Olympics he was knocked out cold within two minutes, so some red flags were already there.

[Expug]

I'm not so sure he was favored to win gold though and his style, being a tall, lanky southpaw was probably always going to suit him better in the amateurs. Banks lost clearly to the Cuban Mesa in their last bout and struggled heaps to even make the US team, winning controversially against Eddie Hopson shortly before Seoul.
His major wins came at home turf in close split decision wins at the World Championships and Pan am Games. John John Molina had also stopped him in the first round and at the Olympics he was knocked out cold within two minutes, so some red flags were already there.

The info you have is enlightening.
There was a lot of hype around him but in retrospect, it was probably local here in Chicago where he was from. I remember hearing about him in terms of “ can’t miss” at the Olympics etc. The way the media had it here after he lost was as if it was an enormous surprise.

[JMac]

I'm not so sure he was favored to win gold though and his style, being a tall, lanky southpaw was probably always going to suit him better in the amateurs. Banks lost clearly to the Cuban Mesa in their last bout and struggled heaps to even make the US team, winning controversially against Eddie Hopson shortly before Seoul.
His major wins came at home turf in close split decision wins at the World Championships and Pan am Games. John John Molina had also stopped him in the first round and at the Olympics he was knocked out cold within two minutes, so some red flags were already there.

The info you have is enlightening.
There was a lot of hype around him but in retrospect, it was probably local here in Chicago where he was from. I remember hearing about him in terms of “ can’t miss” at the Olympics etc. The way the media had it here after he lost was as if it was an enormous surprise.

I'm pretty sure Banks had hundreds of amateur fights. Sometimes once that get KO'd, it seems that they lose the ability to take a punch after that and I think that happened to him.

[JMac]

Matvey Korobov (Russia) was a really good amateur that won the '07 World amateur championships in Chicago. He had a win over Usyk at the '06 European championships. He got beat in the 2nd rd of the '08 Olympics, turned pro in the US. He had a nice pro style that I thought he would do well. He ended up 28-4 but never won any titles. He got stopped by the two biggest name fighters he boxed, Andy Lee and Chris Eubank jr

[Caractacus]

what about Leo Randolph ?
he had won a Gold medal in the 1976 Olympics.

[JMac]

Tyrell Biggs
Clint Jackson
Alex Ramos
Jimmy Clark.

That's a good list. Clark missed the flight from Philly to NY to catch the flight to Poland with a US team that crashed and killed the whole team in 1980. My mini claim to fame is I went the distance but lost a decision in my 4th amateur fight to Buster Drayton who KO'd Clint Jackson in the pros who supposedly had around 400 amateur fights. lol

[JMac]

I think the fighters that had long amateur careers with 200-300+ fights just get burned out and don't always do so well in the pros

[JC]

Tyrell Biggs
Clint Jackson
Alex Ramos
Jimmy Clark.

That's a good list. Clark missed the flight from Philly to NY to catch the flight to Poland with a US team that crashed and killed the whole team in 1980. My mini claim to fame is I went the distance but lost a decision in my 4th amateur fight to Buster Drayton who KO'd Clint Jackson in the pros who supposedly had around 400 amateur fights. lol

That’s a great claim to fame

I mostly know Drayton from Julian Jackson’s highlight reel.

[JMac]

Tyrell Biggs
Clint Jackson
Alex Ramos
Jimmy Clark.

That's a good list. Clark missed the flight from Philly to NY to catch the flight to Poland with a US team that crashed and killed the whole team in 1980. My mini claim to fame is I went the distance but lost a decision in my 4th amateur fight to Buster Drayton who KO'd Clint Jackson in the pros who supposedly had around 400 amateur fights. lol

That’s a great claim to fame

I mostly know Drayton from Julian Jackson’s highlight reel.

That was a heck of a highlight for the Hawk. I wish I could have done that.

[Nile4000]

Tyrell Biggs
Clint Jackson
Alex Ramos
Jimmy Clark.

That's a good list. Clark missed the flight from Philly to NY to catch the flight to Poland with a US team that crashed and killed the whole team in 1980. My mini claim to fame is I went the distance but lost a decision in my 4th amateur fight to Buster Drayton who KO'd Clint Jackson in the pros who supposedly had around 400 amateur fights. lol

Thanks. Amazing that you fought Buster. Was this in Philly?

[JMac]

Tyrell Biggs
Clint Jackson
Alex Ramos
Jimmy Clark.

That's a good list. Clark missed the flight from Philly to NY to catch the flight to Poland with a US team that crashed and killed the whole team in 1980. My mini claim to fame is I went the distance but lost a decision in my 4th amateur fight to Buster Drayton who KO'd Clint Jackson in the pros who supposedly had around 400 amateur fights. lol

Thanks. Amazing that you fought Buster. Was this in Philly?

Yes, it was the finals of the '77 Mid-Atlantic 'AAU novice championships. It was obvious he had a lot experience. A few years later I met him at a Mid-Atlantic boxing banquet. I had heard he had been on the All Marine team with Leon Spinks. I knew he was going to be at the banquet and I had a picture of us boxing so I wanted him to sign it. He was sitting with Tim Witherspoon and I walked up and put the picture down and said hello and asked him if he remembered this bout. He says who is this and Spoon said, that's you Buster. lol I don't think he recognized himself. He then says, who is the other guy? When I told him it was me and when the fight was, he remembered all of the details. I asked him how many fights did he have when we boxed? He said around 40. I was like damn Buster, that was the novice tournament when a novice was anyone with 5 fights or less. He just smiled. That was when they didn't have passbooks for the amateurs so you could get a way with that. I think he had one more amateur fight against Curtis Parker from Philly who had been the national golden glove champ and then turned pro. I ran into him a few more times over the years. He was always a nice guy to talk with.

[Nile4000]

That's a good list. Clark missed the flight from Philly to NY to catch the flight to Poland with a US team that crashed and killed the whole team in 1980. My mini claim to fame is I went the distance but lost a decision in my 4th amateur fight to Buster Drayton who KO'd Clint Jackson in the pros who supposedly had around 400 amateur fights. lol

Thanks. Amazing that you fought Buster. Was this in Philly?

Yes, it was the finals of the '77 Mid-Atlantic 'AAU novice championships. It was obvious he had a lot experience. A few years later I met him at a Mid-Atlantic boxing banquet. I had heard he had been on the All Marine team with Leon Spinks. I knew he was going to be at the banquet and I had a picture of us boxing so I wanted him to sign it. He was sitting with Tim Witherspoon and I walked up and put the picture down and said hello and asked him if he remembered this bout. He says who is this and Spoon said, that's you Buster. lol I don't think he recognized himself. He then says, who is the other guy? When I told him it was me and when the fight was, he remembered all of the details. I asked him how many fights did he have when we boxed? He said around 40. I was like damn Buster, that was the novice tournament when a novice was anyone with 5 fights or less. He just smiled. That was when they didn't have passbooks for the amateurs so you could get a way with that. I think he had one more amateur fight against Curtis Parker from Philly who had been the national golden glove champ and then turned pro. I ran into him a few more times over the years. He was always a nice guy to talk with.

That's a great story .

[Boxingguru75]

A lot of terrific amateurs from Oregon and Washington that didn’t make big dents as pros….

Leo Randolph, Brett Summers, Robert Shannon, Mike Wilson, Les Fabri, Ray Seales, Andy Minsker, Joey Leblic, etc etc Maybe the promotion just wasn’t there for them as pros. Haugen left to Begas to build his career.