BoxRec

Does anyone know why Roberto Cammarelle never turned to pro?

Big southpaw with good skills. He would probably done well at the pros. Guy has impressive record with olympic gold as the cherry on top. Wins over Pulev, Yoka, Hrgovic, Hunter, Rivas, Price and Zhilei just to name the more known fighters.

Because it would've been a dumb move. Achieved all there was to do as an amateur. Has a career, decent income and promotion prospects. Why give up that to roll the dice as a pro?

Cammarelle got a lot of gift decisions in the amateurs because the President of the Italian Federation was a big wig in AIBA. Cammarelle was a decent boxer but he was older than most and all or many of the top Italian national team get paid as police officers. I know Cammarelle was one. I'm not sure what kind of police force they were on like a federal police but they get paid well. I don't even know if they ever wear the uniform outside of special occasions but it was a way to pay the athletes and keep them on the national team.
I don't think he would have been champion material in the pros.

which gifts? i saw him really pound on some guys...price, zhang, the cuban alfonso, and i think he stopped kuzmin too

i know he was like 0-5 vs povetkin

Had him beating AJ in the Olympics.... Dunno how he'd have done as a pro. Sure he'd have been pretty decent but it's hard to tell especially at heavy!

Cammarelle got well paid as an amateur and didn´t want to turn pro. He didn´t even want to box in the WSB where Italia Thunder was a successful team. Neither did he box in AIBA:s APB.

Besides he had a long time back injury, a herniated disk, which made him less mobile over the years. He would have had a hard time with the longer pro bouts due to his injury.

Between 2007 and 2009 when he won gold at the Olympics and 2 World Championships I believe he would have been very competitive with the best pros.

ya i agree, for a time he looked really good, was producing some real hard stoppages for the ams too...was a fast, sharp hard puncher

so many wins over current notable pros, i know the ams are the ams, but he was hardly some flicky point scorer

By the way, Cammarelle was robbed against Joshua. Yeah, let's revive this topic, I'm still disgruntled.

Thanks for everyone for the answers. The Italian style to pay for boxers was totally new to me. Also that back injury explains a lot.

I think he would have done well at the pros

Here in Italy boxing fans know that Roberto never turned pro because he had chronical back injury. He could've fight only for few rounds per fight. He could't training properly hard too for that reason. He couldn't sustain a pro career

Steo wrote: ↑11 Nov 2018, 20:59 Here in Italy boxing fans know that Roberto never turned pro because he had chronical back injury. He could've fight only for few rounds per fight. He could't training properly hard too for that reason. He couldn't sustain a pro career

That makes sense...

Heretic wrote: ↑08 Nov 2018, 08:04 Does anyone know why Roberto Cammarelle never turned to pro?

Big southpaw with good skills. He would probably done well at the pros. Guy has impressive record with olympic gold as the cherry on top. Wins over Pulev, Yoka, Hrgovic, Hunter, Rivas, Price and Zhilei just to name the more known fighters.

That's a business-related issue, I believe: Cammarelle had all the means to make a professional world champion, but Italian pro-boxers have no business: staying in the police forces, and receiving a solid monthly wage from the police, is safer than rolling the dice among professionals, for an Italian, no matter how good he is.

Cammarelle was feared like plague by international biased juries (guess why few usually point it out...), and was stolen at least the 2012 Olympic gold: he's in the very same class as Stevenson, Savon, Papp and few others.