How was Mesi as an Amateur?
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raphaelcaria
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 17
- Joined: 24 Feb 2005, 23:25
How was Mesi as an Amateur?
His record?
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holeymoley99
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 110
- Joined: 26 Nov 2005, 11:08
Mesi was 72-8
Joe had a nice amateur career. He lost in the Olympic Trials finals to Lawrence Clay-Bey. He beat Tommy Martin in a special qualifying bout to even make the trials in the finals spot (Martin was awarded the At large spot and Joe sued to get it,they had a box off,Joe had lost in the Eastern Trial finals to Charles Shufford,now all 8 spots are determined by qualifying with no At Large spot). Opening round Joe beat Shufford 11-10 to get revenge then he upset T.J. Wilson before losing to Lawrence 17-4. In the box offs Joe upset Clay-Bey 26-11 and forced a rubber match. He stunned Lawrence in the opeing round and knocked him across the ring as he charged in to finish Lawrence caught him with a perfect shot and it was a rare amateur one punch K.O.
I talked to Lawrence shortly after the bout (I met the Olympic sqaud at a special lunch at Sea World and talked in depth to Lawrence,Floyd,Nate Jones,Diaz,Morel,Zab Judah who was an alternate,all really open guys once they realize you are a real fight fan) and he told me he felt Joe would become champion of the world one day,he also told me not to expect too much from Lance Whittaker despite his size and amateur accomplishments (Looks like he was 1 for 2).
I talked to Lawrence shortly after the bout (I met the Olympic sqaud at a special lunch at Sea World and talked in depth to Lawrence,Floyd,Nate Jones,Diaz,Morel,Zab Judah who was an alternate,all really open guys once they realize you are a real fight fan) and he told me he felt Joe would become champion of the world one day,he also told me not to expect too much from Lance Whittaker despite his size and amateur accomplishments (Looks like he was 1 for 2).
Joe does have a KO win over Hasim Rahman in the amatuers too. I'm not sure what event, Golden Gloves maybe? Does anyone think that Joe would have been a better fighter if he would have stayed amatuer 4 more years and tried for the olympics again, then turned pro? I think he might have a better career at this point. While his punching is pretty good, he could have used more time to learn defense in the amatuers IMO.