Maybe it was the steaming heat of the dog days of August that fried my brain. For the first couple of days of a two-week stretch, I was under the impression that the American television network NBC was, for fear of losing the female audience, shovelling coverage of Olympic boxing to its smaller cable stations.
Foolish, foolish me.
In truth, the reason NBC was banishing boxing was for fear of boring its audience to death.
Had that fear been realised, think of the class-action lawsuit that surely would’ve resulted! But I digress. After dangerously exposing myself to nightly three-hour boxing shows (all on tape, of course), here’s what I absorbed from Athens:
* In Olympic boxing, no one ever gets stunned or staggered, much less knocked down or out. There’s more physical contact in badminton.
* No one scores with a hook. In fact, no one even throws one. And few fighters bother to jab because they’ll be countered by the type of straight punches favoured by the judges.
* Every other fighter is a southpaw.
* Referees resemble mimes when issuing dozens of warnings per fight. But they never seem to issue deductions.
* The computerised scoring might as well be open because every cornerman knows exactly where every fighter stands at every point in every bout.
* If a fighter is well ahead during the fourth and last of the two-minute rounds, he unashamedly skips around the ring as if burning calories in an aerobics class. The fighter trailing on points has no choice but to follow like an ill-suited dance partner.
* The Greek fans booed the American fighters as if holding them responsible for Dennis Rodman, Paris Hilton, and the fact that grape leaves have been added to the list of endangered appetisers.
Put it all together and unless you were rooting for Amir Khan, the boxing in Athens was about as exciting as a 14-day broadcast of a checkers tournament at a nursing home.
As for the Americans, we won one more medal than the British. That’s largely because nine of our fighters qualified (out of a possible 11) and only Khan competed under your flag. But I’m hardly bragging because Egypt captured one more medal than the USA.
Egypt, for Chrissakes! Who one-betters us next, Madagascar?
On the final day of the competition, 20-year-old light-heavyweight Andre Ward spared the USA from total humiliation by outpointing Belarus’s Magomed Aripgadjiev, 20-13. The only other medal winner was middleweight Andre Dirrell, who bronzed. It was the fewest medals won by an American Olympic boxing team since 1948. Then again, four years ago in Sydney, we went gold-less, so Athens could have been worse.
This was a remarkably young and inexperienced U.S. squad, averaging just under 21 years of age. With the exception of flyweight Ron Siler, 24, the boxers had minimal international experience.
“It’s because of a lack of funding,” explained Emanuel Steward, who is USA Boxing’s National Director of Coaching. “The [American] kids haven’t gotten the experience. We’re preparing new babies to compete against strong men.
“In 1983-’84, five of the gold medal winners from the ’84 Games were living with me [in Detroit]. I had Pernell Whitaker, Tyrell Biggs, Frank Tate, Mark Breland, and Steve McCrory. During that time we went on about six international trips. It’s a whole different level internationally. The judges get to know you and get familiar with your style.”
The sentiment was echoed by Teddy Atlas, who analysed the boxing competition for NBC.
“They are not prepared for the European style,” Atlas said of the Americans. “It’s like training for a 100-meter dash and finding out you’re running a mile.”
Indeed, the U.S. boxers seemed uncomfortable. After Rau’Shee Warren was outfought by eventual bronze Shiming Zou (China’s first Olympic boxing medallist), the 17-year-old light-fly was fighting tears. “I ain’t used to no fighter like that,” said Warren, who had been confused by Zou’s lateral movement. Warren lost his first-round match by 22-9.
It was similar for light-welterweight Rock Allen, whose preparations included sparring with Bernard Hopkins. After receiving a first-round bye, the 22-year-old Philadelphian faced Bulgaria’s Boris Georgiev, whose movement drew Allen into a fistful of counterpunches. Allen was dropped in the first round and came within a point of being rescued by the mercy rule in the third. (If a boxer builds a lead of 20 points within the first three rounds, the bout is automatically stopped.)
As it turned out, eventual bronze medalist Georgiev worked all four rounds, winning by 30-10. “I think I lost to a better kid tonight,” said Allen, who had been picked for a bronze by Sports Illustrated.
Warren and Allen were the only Americans who were defeated in their first matches. Co-captain Siler, who lost in the round of 16, was a major disappointment. After landing flush throughout his 32-18 first-round win over unfortunately named Australian southpaw Bradley Hore, Siler drew Uzbekistan left-hander Tulashboy Doniyorov in round two. Familiar story: Siler boxed aggressively, got countered silly, fell behind early, and never threatened to catch up. He lost 45-22 to a fighter who subsequently failed to medal.
Siler plans to turn pro at least partly because he needs the money. He has five children, with a sixth on the way.
At least 18-year-old light-middleweight Vanes Martirosyan, a Californian who was born in Armenia, lost to a stud amateur. After one-twoing his way to a first-round win over Algeria’s Benamar Meskine by 45-20, Martirosyan fell to two-time world champion Lorenzo Aragon by a score of 20-11. It was sweet revenge for Aragon; in the ’96 Games, the Cuban lost to Floyd Mayweather. That was the first time a Cuban had been beaten by an American in Olympic competition since 1976.
In Athens, Aragon, 30, went on to win silver.
Lightweight Vicente Escobedo entered the competition with the reputation of being Team USA’s hardest worker. In a stellar division that featured the charismatic Khan, European champion Dimitar Stilianov (Bulgaria), and repeat gold medalist Mario Kindelan (Cuba), that didn’t count for much. In his first match, Escobedo stopped Colombia’s Jose Mosquera via the mercy rule in the third round (30-10). In the round of 16, Azerbaijan’s 28-year-old Rovshan Huseynov proved far too cagey in topping the American by 36-18. Escobedo moved nicely, but after a relatively strong first round, his wide punches failed to connect.
Huseynov did not medal.
America’s big men were busts. Twenty-two-year-old heavyweight Devin Vargas received a first-round bye, then chopped down 6ft 6ins Moroccan Rachid El Haddak by mercy rule in round three (27-7). In the round of eight, Vargas aggravated an injury to his left knee, which severely hampered his mobility. Forced to wade in, he was outpunched by southpaw and eventual silver medalist Viktar Zuyev of Belarus, 36-27.
“After I felt the pain, I buckled,” a tearful Vargas was quoted in the New York Daily News. “It was a big factor.”
Given the circumstances, Vargas’s defeat was acceptable. Not so for 23-year-old Jason Estrada, who was considered the fastest super heavyweight in the tournament. Estrada’s reputation was built at the Pan-Am Games in 2003, where he defeated Cuba’s Michel Lopez in the championship match by a score of 14-6. Estrada, who stands only 6ft, scaled 228 pounds for that competition. In Athens, he fought at 263 — and insisted he was in top condition.
In the first round, Estrada easily clipped Tonga’s only boxing representative, Ma’afu Hawke, 30-11. In the round of 16, he was rematched with the 28-year-old Lopez, a massive southpaw who weighed in at 271. This time, Estrada fell behind 7-1 and allowed Lopez to control the tempo en route to a 21-7 victory.
Afterwards, Estrada enraged his coaches by saying, “It really doesn’t matter to me. If I’m going to lose, I’m going to lose getting hit as little as possible.”
“[Estrada] didn’t show any class,” head coach Basheer Abdullah told USA Today. “He embarrassed our country.”
The same cannot be said of the Andres, both of whom medalled. Switch-hitting middleweight Andre Dirrell, 20, used his speed and reach to defeat China’s Ha Dabateer (25-18), Algeria’s Nabil Kassel (27-7 on the mercy rule at the end of round two), and most impressively, Cuba’s Yordanis Despaigne, 12-11. Dirrell and Despaigne had split two previous bouts.
In an uneventful semi final match, Dirrell lost by 23-18 to the reigning world champion, Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan. Golovkin went on to win the silver medal.
As for gold medalist Andre Ward, the 6ft 1in light-heavyweight advanced with a first-round bye, then cruised to a 17-9 win over Italy’s Clemente Russo.
Next came the supreme test, a showdown with 6ft 6ins Russian Yevgeny Makarenko, a two-time world champion who was favoured to win the gold. It was an intriguing duel; Makarenko hadn’t lost in five years, while Ward was unbeaten in six. Ward forced Makarenko to change angles and outquicked him en route to a 23-16 upset win. “It was all God,” the winner said.
In his semi final bout, Ward and Uzbekistan’s Utkirbek Haydarov were tied at 15-15 with 15 seconds remaining in the bout. A straight right hand gave the American the lead, and he ultimately triumphed by 17-15.
In capturing America’s first gold medal since David Reid in 1996, Ward overcame a thumb to his right eye (“for a minute and a half, I had trouble seeing”), maintained a small lead throughout, and outscored Aripgadjiev. He dedicated the gold to his father, who two years ago died of a heart attack at age 45.
What a difference four years makes. In Sydney, virtually every big-name American promoter was present, and immediately after the Games, fighters like Ricardo Williams, Rocky Juarez, Michael Bennett, Jermain Taylor, Brian Viloria, and Jeff Lacy were scooped up — with juicy signing bonuses to be had by all. Even foreign-born fighters like Panchito Bojado and Jerson Ravelo were inked. Part of the reason: HBO and Showtime agreed to broadcast many of the Olympians’ early pro bouts.
Athens? “There were no [American] promoters,” said New York Daily News boxing writer Tim Smith, who covered the competition. “I think there were concerns about security issues. But also they didn’t see anybody with potential to be high profile enough to interest Showtime or HBO. They might have been right.”
“There hasn’t been a particularly wonderful track record for the fighters who came out of the Games four years ago,” said promoter Lou DiBella, who in 2000 signed Williams, Taylor, Viloria, Bennett, Ravelo, Clarence Vinson, and Jose Navarro. “The money [they received] was insane. It was out of whack with reality. And the prevailing wisdom was that the better fighters didn’t make the team this time around.
“I don’t think the kids from this team deserve disrespect. Even though I don’t see a potential superstar, I see fighters who could have very good careers. It’s just that economically, they’re going to find a very different market.
“Four years ago was an aberration.”
Sadly, the performance of the American boxers in Athens might not have been an aberration. The 2008 Games in Beijing are four years away. The room for improvement is frighteningly immense.
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