Mario Kindelan: The greatest amateur boxer who missed out on millions of dollars!

Cuba's Mario Kindelan is recognized as one of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers of all time, but he never had a professional career.

In his final fight as an amateur, one boxing commentator referred to him 'as a professional in a vest,' signaling his dominance at that level.

The lightweight boxer controlled the amateur boxing scene between 1999 and 2004, winning all seven competitions he entered.

In that five-year stretch, Kindelan won two Olympic gold medals, three World Championship golds, and two Pan American Games gold medals.

The Cuban also won two golds at the Central American and Caribbean in 1993 and 1998 before he went on his impressive five-year streak in 1999.

Kindelan finished with an unbelievable boxing record, winning 358 fights and only losing 22, going unbeaten from 1999 to his retirement in 2004.

A fighter boxing fans may be more familiar with is Amir Khan, the former unified Super lightweight world champion, who Kindelan got the better of multiple times at amateur level.

Before the Olympics in 2004, Kindelan beat Khan 33-13 and defeated him in the 2004 Olympics gold medal match 30-22.

Last week, Khan and Kindelan surprisingly met in Bahrain, but their conversation surprised Khan after the Cuban offered the British boxer his 2004 gold medal for $5,000.

The Cuban needed the $5,000 to build his mum a new house because Kindelan had never made any money from his boxing expertise. Khan refused and decided to give him $5,000 without the medal involved.

According to essentiallysports.com, Khan said: "That gold medal belongs to him. He's a champion. He beat me in the Olympics. So, what I want to do is I want to give him five thousand dollars to build his house."

As well as Khan, the Cuban boxer defeated future professional world champions Félix Trinidad, Miguel Cotto, Andreas Kotelnik, and fellow Olympic champions Somluck Kamsing and Félix Díaz.

Kindelan had the experience and pedigree to make millions of dollars in the sport, but he decided to quit and never fight for the money. Why?

Until 2013, professional sports in Cuba were prohibited, meaning an athlete's reward was to represent their people at the Olympics for love, not money.

According to theguardian.com, when asked if he had been tempted by professional boxing, Kindelan said: "Yes, but it is very important for me to stay in Cuba. I love my family, and my family means more to me than all the millions in the world."

"Boxing has brought me fame and the chance to travel all over the world. The sport has been good to me."