For decades, Olympic boxing has been the Taylor Griffin of pugilism. The senior sibling of Los Angeles Clippers superstar Blake Griffin looks a lot like his baby brother, but his game just isn’t in the same stratosphere. That’s why Taylor has spent his playing career in the D-League and overseas while Blake has earned the big bucks, fame and acclaim in the NBA. Yes, Olympic boxing is just like that.
Many people don’t realize that boxing was introduced to the modern-day Olympics right here in St. Louis at the III Olympiad in 1904. Since then, 1912 was the only year in which boxing was not present in the Olympic Games, due to a prohibition on the sport in Sweden. Olympic boxing was always a sport of pride and prestige until the 1980s when cracks began to appear in its armor.
While the 1980s-era Olympics produced some great talent such as Ray Mercer, Pernell Whitaker and Roy Jones Jr., rule changes made during the decade helped make the sport nearly unbearable to watch. In 1984, headgear was introduced. Headgear made it difficult for fans to see the fighters faces and difficult for the fighters to land clean punches in the ring. Headgear in boxing is akin to requiring swimmers to wear life vests. For local, regional or even national competitions, headgear might be acceptable. For the Olympics however, they always seemed woefully out of place.
After Jones Jr. was blatantly cheated out of Olympic gold in 1988, (Let’s all feign surprise at corruption in the sport of boxing.) the sport’s scoring system was changed from the common 10-point must system used in professional boxing, to a strange punch-counting system that Albert Einstein could not have figured out.
The punch-counting system was the worst thing to happen to the sport. Professional fighters skillfully box, set up power shots and attempt to put their opponents to sleep. However, amateur boxing was relegated to a fencing match minus the swords. Fighters typically picked and pecked their way through boring bouts by simply trying to land more pillow-soft punches than their opponent. The prestige of Olympic gold began to wane. Over time, both the American public and American fighters lost interest. For the first time in Olympic history, the United States failed to medal for any weight class in men’s boxing in 2012.
Now in 2016, the Olympic committee has righted its wrongs for Rio. The bulky headgear is gone and scoring has been reverted to the traditional system. The effect has been a fight fan’s dream. Olympic boxing is exciting once again. Watching Carlos Balderas (USA)defeat Daisuke Narimatsu (JPN) was a treat. While Balderas won a 3-0 unanimous decision, it was an interesting fight where both fighters put forth a solid mixture of craft and crush as they went toe-to-toe and blow-for-blow for all three rounds.
While the American men only sent six fighters to Rio this year, there’s a good chance that Team USA will expand upon its 111 Olympic boxing medals (Cuba is second on the all-time list with 67). Team USA got off to a 4-0 start before Charles Conwell lost to Vikas Krishan Yadav (IND) in the middleweight Round of 16. Along with Balderas, Team USA still has plenty of chances to medal with Nico Hernandez (light flyweight), Antonio Vargas (flyweight), Shakur Stevenson (bantamweight) and Gary Russell (light welterweight).
Pros down for the count in Year 1
Rio also marks the first year that professional fighters are eligible to box in the Olympic Games. Considering that pros compete in basketball, tennis, track and field, gymnastics and other sports, it was only a matter of time before the big boys of boxing got the green light to compete.
There were rumblings out of Manny Pacquiao’s and Amir Khan’s camps that they would compete for their home countries, but both ultimately decided against it. Every other well-known fighter followed suit. It may have had something to do with the IBF vowing to strip its champions of their titles if they chose to compete in the Olympics. The reasoning had something to do with “unsportsmanlike behavior.” Apparently the IBF was afraid that some of its paper champions might not be able to compete with the best amateurs in the world.
The result is that just three pro fighters competed in Rio and all have been eliminated. Hassan N’Dam (CMR) and Carmine Tommasone (ITA) were both bounced out of the first round of the tournament. Amnat Ruenroeng’s (THA) Olympic dreams were put down for the count in the second round. I have a feeling though that more pros will try their luck in 2020.
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