it all depends on a lot of factors, i think gil clancy said he'd usually wait a year before entering a fighter into the golden gloves BUT..,NY is the boxing Mecca with 8 -10 million people, lots of talent, lots of gyms. Gil was so impressed by emile griffith's talent that he entered him after 3 mos of training, so that tells you a little. so, golden gloves would have different quality in different region, I remember seeing a guy beat the tar out of a guy from my gym, Mylon Watkins, I don't remember if it was golden gloves or not but it put him in position to fight for the olympics where he met Mark Breland who put his lights out with one punch, it's all degrees, levels in boxing. Mylon Watkins was said to be the most talented kid ever out of the accomplished tacoma gym but you wouldn't know it watching the breland fight. So.., it's generally a lower level accomplishement for a boxer but a platform for better things if you have the talent. Hector Camacho won the NY golden gloves 2 or 3 times I think but couldn't make the olympics for some reason, he became a world champion as a pro. Breland was somewhat of a bust as a pro, mylon Watkins got shot and it ended his career. In my opinion, the guys from my gym shouldn't have even been fighting let alone the best from this region, they had no training to go off besides hit the bag, put your dominant hand back, jab with your weak hand and that was about it. I guess a real natural talent could get away with that, Pinklon Thomas (from my first gym) won a seattle GG after a little work, Joe Hipp was a local winner also.
