Olympic gold medalists that never became pro world champions

[elmersalsa]

Howard Davis, Jr. comes to mind...What happened?

[SaadOffTheDeck]

He froze against Watt, who is underrated to begin with, and suffered a flash knockdown in the final seconds against Rosario. A lot of people thought he beat Edwin anyway. There was a lot of pressure on Howard, it doesn't always pan out.

[dempseyfire]

Big Ed Sanders, who tragically died in the pro ring after he won Olympic Gold by turning Ingo Johansson into a running kangaroo . .

[Crease]

I am embarrassed to say his name but: Audley Harrison

[jaclem2]

...howard davis had a lot of talent, but lacked that indefinable something ..that extra little instinct that makes for a complete fighter.

that said....after he beat aaron pryor in the amateurs there would have been a good pay day for them to fight as pros in cincinnati....but aaron wanted no part of him and refused to make the match.

[Seamus]

Jerry Page, 1984 Gold medalist. Put in over his head in the pros, and ended up a disappointment.

[metchampion]

Just the Brits.....

Henry Thomas, Richard Gunn, John Douglas, Albert Goldman & Fred Grace. - London 1908

Harry Mallin - 1920 Antwerp & 1924 Paris

Ron Raawson 1920 Antwerp

Harry Mitchell 1924 Paris

Terry Spinks, Dick McTaggart Melbourne 1956 (Dick never tuned pro).

Chris Finnegan Munich. - 1972

Audley Harrison 2000 Sydney
James Degale - 2008 Beijing (still active)

[Panzerfaust]

Otto Von Porat , Norways olympic champ at heavy 1924

Von Porat imo was a huge under achiever, If you read his self bio it shines through the whole book he didnt believe in himself.

[Deno1986]

Michael Carruth from Ireland won gold in Barcelona '92, fought for the WBO Title but lost a majority decision against Michael Loewe in Germany.

[Panzerfaust]

Im surprised no-one has mentioned Lazslo Papp

[Ambling Alp]

There are literally dozens, probably than 100 fighters who won a gold medal and never won even a paper title.

[raylawpc]

The best of the bunch was Papp. He was cheated out of a title fight by his own government. In 1989, the WBC made him an 'honorary' champion, and the IBHOF inducted him in 2001.

[Brutu]

The first Olympic Heavyweight Champion(Summer Games 1904)
Sam Beger.He was 6 ft 2 inches tall and 200 pounds.
He was knocked out by Al Kaufman 2 years into turning pro
then went into the Haberdashery business and later became Jim J. Jeffries
manager when Jeffries came out of retirement in 1910(also sometimes sparred with Jefferies).

[IRLangmaid25]

Antonio Roldan. Won gold as a Featherweight in Mexico City is another along with George Hunter Light Heavyweight gold medalist in 1948. Also Franco De Piccoli from the 1960 Rome games at Heavyweight too.

[orbtastic]

Outside of Davis, who clearly had talent but something "else" missing, I always think of Andrew Maynard & Anthony Hembrick (I know Hembrick "missed the bus").

Frank Tate is another, although obviously he won a title, he never really did much as a pro (or as much as he was expected to). At one point, Ring magazine rated him ridiculously highly at middleweight, I think he was their number 1 before he fought Nunn.

In recent years, the only gold medalist I can think of who never got a world title fight would be Jerry Page. Even Paul Gonzales & Steve McCrory got title shots. The majority of the US '84 & '88 gold medalists didn't really live up their potential as amas, save Whittaker.

[gregor]

Tillman and Biggs are two that instantly come to mind due to their fights with Tyson.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Paul Gonzales is one of the biggest ones. Some of that is the American publics ignorance to the lighter weights. But I must admit I thought he had it in him.

[Scottrf]

Only 4/17 of the Val Barker trophy winners have ever won a World Title; Benvenuti, Oliva, Jones Jr and Jirov. Not that many turned pro but of those that did Paul Gonzales got a title shot against Canizales but lost on a cut early, after previously beating him. Howard Davis came up short against McGuigan, Pedroza and McGirt. If that's the conversion rate of the most outstanding boxers I'd imagine Gold Medal to World Title is a very small percentage. A lot of them are career amateurs and age/experience leads to their success, whereas the ones going on to world titles are more likely to be young/relatively inexperienced as amateurs.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

You have Howard mixed up with someone else, but he did get iced by McGirt. The others were Watt & Rosario.

[Scottrf]

You have Howard mixed up with someone else, but he did get iced by McGirt. The others were Watt & Rosario.

I didn't get Howard mixed up, actually made the worse mistake of getting two of his opponents mixed up. Wasn't really thinking, obviously meant Watt/Rosario rather than McGuigan/Pedroza. Especially bad as was only reading about Watt/Davis a few days ago.

[Ketchel]

Sugar Ray Seales. Got a draw with Hagler early in his career.

[jaclem2]

..sugar ray seales was a pretty good fighter...and tragically he continued boxing when he was blind in one eye and i think the other one was going too.

[Nile4000]

Howard Davis, Jr. comes to mind...What happened?

He admitted that after his fifth pro fight, he wasn't in love with boxing no more, he didn't really want to fight.