BoxRec

Turned pro and didn't make it to contender status? Lost on their debut? Left it (all) in the ams? This is your thread.

Steve McCrory fought Jeff Fenech, but struggled to find any decent wins.

Guess there are tons of guys. Mark Breland comes to mind. Not that he was as a pro, but he was a much better amateur.

Coley Wallace

Errol Christie was pretty amazing but he turned pro with the wrong promotional team. He should have gone with the Cartel.

Shawn O'Sullivan
Vince Shomo
Jorge Luis Gonzalez
Anthony Hembrick

scartissue wrote: ↑10 Feb 2026, 09:41 Shawn O'Sullivan
Vince Shomo
Jorge Luis Gonzalez
Anthony Hembrick

Do you think Wayne Lynum could be included Dan?
He was terrific in the amateurs here. Never really made a big splash in the pros.

Forrest ward
https://grokipedia.com/page/forrest_ward

June 1968
5th professional fight

Well actually Duane Bobick was pretty good as a pro, but best remembered for loosing the Big fights that really counted.

Boone Kirkman,
Archie Moore was so impressed with him when he won the AAU HW boxing title in 1965
(that was televised) that he had wanted to train him as a pro.

https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Boone_Kirkman

November 1970
Boone Kirkman's 24th professional fight

Tyrell Biggs
Clint Jackson
Alex Ramos
Jimmy Clark.

boone kirkman was 27-6 as an amateur, national title his top achievement. not bad but not setting the world on fire, id say he did pretty well as a pro if were just to take his amateur career as the standard - beat some recognizable 2nd/3rd tier names, was in ring magazine's top 10 for a bit. i think we often look at top fighters and see they won similar titles as ams, so expect that level from other guys who won those titles, when we should work the other way and look at the guys who won the am titles and then see how they did - there are loads who never reached serious heights as pros.

thx for posting the foreman fight though, young george was terrifying. lumbering and slower than most world class heavyweights, but the way he punched through the target is something you rarely see, excellent punch mechanics for power. no wonder opponents crumbled when he landed. also good at mixing up between shorter shots and bigger swings, and keeping the angles of his punches changing. he had some subtle boxing iq which i think is why he was actually quite accurate a puncher despite being a bit slow and crude to the eye.

Big Ed Sanders became the first black Olympic heavyweight champ, scaring Ingo into a forfeit, only to became a pretty lukewarm pro and tragically die after getting beat by one of his own sparring partners.

JordanKeepers wrote: ↑12 Feb 2026, 15:18 Big Ed Sanders became the first black Olympic heavyweight champ, scaring Ingo into a forfeit, only to became a pretty lukewarm pro and tragically die after getting beat by one of his own sparring partners.

ed sanders looked like a beast in the little footage we have of him in the amateurs, i would predicted big things for him if id been around at the time

JordanKeepers wrote: ↑12 Feb 2026, 15:18 Big Ed Sanders became the first black Olympic heavyweight champ, scaring Ingo into a forfeit, only to became a pretty lukewarm pro and tragically die after getting beat by one of his own sparring partners.

Ingo was never 'scared" the ref just wanted them to both 'wade" into one another and see someone destoyed,
apparently he must have had some type of
'blood lust" or something.

Its amazing that Pete Rademacher (winner of Gold medal at Olympics)
got a shot at the HW Championship with his very first pro fight.
(of course it just had to have been "All down hill" for his (or anyone's)pro boxing career after something like that)

Sam Berger-winner of the first Gold medal in HW boxing at the 1904 Olympics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Berger_(boxer)

Eddie Egan, his amateur boxing career would seem far less then amazing and he never turned pro.
but in books ,one always seem to encounter his name associated with boxing and sparring
with Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney.
Rocky Graziano gave an interesting encounter with Eddie Egan his book SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Eagan

Caractacus wrote: ↑13 Feb 2026, 17:05

JordanKeepers wrote: ↑12 Feb 2026, 15:18 Big Ed Sanders became the first black Olympic heavyweight champ, scaring Ingo into a forfeit, only to became a pretty lukewarm pro and tragically die after getting beat by one of his own sparring partners.

Ingo was never 'scared" the ref just wanted them to both 'wade" into one another and see someone destoyed,
apparently he must have had some type of
'blood lust" or something.

Dude, seriously.

both of them were natural "Counter-Punchers" so why should the ref think that Ingo should
have been the one forced to have lead ?
should Ingo have just 'stood still" there for Sanders ?
Sanders had the size advantage.
(plus Ingo saw how Sanders had destroyed his previous opponent, who had played Sanders game and had
just 'came straight into" Sanders.)
and the ref didn't say "squat" about Sanders 'rabbit punches" either.

Marvin Stinson.

JordanKeepers wrote: ↑13 Feb 2026, 22:29

Caractacus wrote: ↑13 Feb 2026, 17:05

JordanKeepers wrote: ↑12 Feb 2026, 15:18 Big Ed Sanders became the first black Olympic heavyweight champ, scaring Ingo into a forfeit, only to became a pretty lukewarm pro and tragically die after getting beat by one of his own sparring partners.

Ingo was never 'scared" the ref just wanted them to both 'wade" into one another and see someone destoyed,
apparently he must have had some type of
'blood lust" or something.

Dude, seriously.

This was absurd. The referee was obviously crooked.

Nile4000 wrote: ↑03 Mar 2026, 02:34 Marvin Stinson.

Good call. You would have thought he would have done a bit better as a pro.

Anyone remember Kelcie Banks?
Highly touted amateur, won am world championship, national golden gloves etc.
was favored to win gold in 88 Olympics and got kod in first fight of tournament. Went pro and really didn’t get anywhere.

I do vaguely remember him. Don't remember him as a pro at all.