A week or so removed from the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, it’s now 40 years since the USA was dominant in boxing competition when they took home nine golds plus a bronze and a silver medal at the 1984 games in Los Angeles. Since then, only one gold from Andre Ward, the accomplished Hall of Fame and light heavyweight champion who swept the competition at the 2004 Athens games in Greece.
And the status of boxing as an Olympic sport in four years, again in Los Angeles, remains in the balance as organizers are adamant about sending boxing home as a competitive sport. Any number of reasons for the decision makers, but corruption is the main culprit as sources inform me.
Overall, boxing in Olympic competition has been on a rapid decline. Once a premiere event of the medal competition, there was a need for a path finder to locate who and where on the Peacock, NBC, and other affiliated networks was televising the bouts. Some billion dollar network coverage and a boxing enthusiast was left in the dark.
So different from 1984 when all eyes were on USA Olympic boxing, then dominant, capturing eyes of the world and boxing community. I was a part of that historic event at the LA Sports Arena as I was employed as a press representative with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee.
I got to know and work with the last and noted USA team, personal accomplishments that will probably never be seen again. A team that will never be duplicated and in 40 years has never been challenged. Then in 1984, the schedule of two weeks had 12 events, 354 fighters from 81 countries. A Soviet led boycott resulted in withdrawals of the Soviet Union, Cuba, East Germany, Bulgaria and other Eastern bloc nations.
But that did not deter the USA team from their quest to achieve gold. Then Italy, Yugoslavia, South Korea, Canada, Puerto Rico (Independent from USA) and Mexico were standout teams with boxing programs and ability to overtake the USA. In 40 years there has been an attempt to reach that glory and bring the gold home with no success.
Last week Ward said it was a disgrace with the continued decline of USA amateur boxing. His Olympic Gold propelled him to an undefeated pro career, multiple world championships in two weight classes that included unified middleweight and super middleweight titles between 2009 and 2015. The Hall of Famer also unified the light heavyweight titles between 2016 and 2017.
In the meantime, Uzbekistan won their 5th men’s gold medal in Paris, the first country to win 5 at the Olympics since Cuba in 2004, second to the USA’s 9 in 1984. It doesn’t say much for a USA team that resulted in Omari Jones losing via split decision in the welterweight semifinals that ended any hope of Team USA winning gold since Ward in 2004.
Uzbekistan won as many gold medals in Paris by surpassing their first seven Olympic appearances combined.
Added to the demise of Olympic boxing was the controversy of Algerian Imane Khelif who won the women’s welterweight gold medal, a dark eye because of male chromosomes in a female body which opened another pandora’s box and allegations.
So as they head to Los Angeles in four years, and with controversy of corruption, though yet to be uncovered, boxing is not included in the Olympic program. This is due to the International Olympic Committee’s decision in June 2023 to withdraw recognition of the International Boxing Association (IBA), the discredited governing body that has logistics of possible corruption and back-and-forth fighting in a boardroom.
“Any decision has been put on hold,” the IOC has said in their recent statements. A travesty and difficult to envision boxing not being a part of the games in four years.
I recall again the unity and tradition. Witnessing the history as it unfolded 40 years ago, it was historic and not too long after the names began their quest, enshrined in boxing history. Here is a look at team USA and some of their accomplishments:
- Paul Gonzalez: Light Flyweight (Gold)
- Steve McCrory: Flyweight (Gold)
- Meldrick Taylor: Featherweight (Gold)
- Pernell Whitaker: Lightweight (Gold)
- Jerry Paige: Light Welterweight (Gold)
- Mark Breland: Welterweight (Gold)
- Frank Tate: Light Middleweight (Gold)
- Virgil Hill: Middleweight (Silver)
- Henry Tillman: Heavyweight (Gold)
- Tyrell Biggs: Super Heavyweight (Gold)
- Evander Holyfield: Light Heavyweight (Bronze)
Of note here are the Hill and Holyfield consolation medals, both appeared to win easily on the scorecards of Olympic scoring systems that are compiled with more than three judges and then with the innovation of judges hitting buttons to determine how many jabs or punches were scored.
Holyfield, of course, achieved boxing history as the only boxer in history to win the undisputed championship in two weight classes at cruiserweight and heavyweight in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, then the 3-belt title era among the alphabet soup boxing organizations.
Hill became a successful light heavyweight champion. Breland, a welterweight champion from Brooklyn, NY who became known as a renowned trainer of former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder. Whitaker, a former four-division champion, fell on hard times with an untimely passing in 2019. Meldrick Taylor, his stable mate from Philadelphia, won titles in two weight classes while others faded in the sunset. Regardless it was a good time for USA boxing, the Olympics and their quest to stardom.
But as years passed, all that glory has gone to shame, basically the answers are difficult to find. On one end is the alleged and inside corruption of amateur boxing and an Olympic boxing training complex in Colorado Springs that is always under scrutiny.
I posed that question to the Hall of Famer Holyfield numerous times. To Breland, another Hall of Famer more than once. What has gone wrong? They didn’t have the answers, though a complete overhaul was the overall consensus. How to implement change is the complexity for the USA Boxing team and Olympic boxing.
Years pass and the question is the USA sending pro fighters to compete, then again that kills the entire concept of amateur competition, though other nations have been allowed to send professional fighters to compete which has always been another issue that posed more than one question. Cuba for years has been a leader of going against the amateur route.
It’s not an equal way of competing for gold. More so, with Olympic boxing in four years undetermined, that’s another question. Also, the answer of getting gold to a USA Boxing team has intensified the issue.
The question, will we ever witness another team that made history 40 years ago?
Rich Mancuso: X (Twitter) @Ring786 Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso
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About the Author
Rich Mancuso
Rich Mancuso is a regular contributor at NY Sports Day, covering countless New York Mets, Yankees, and MLB teams along with some of the greatest boxing matches over the years. He is an award winning sports journalist and previously worked for The Associated Press, New York Daily News, Gannett, and BoxingInsider.com, in a career that spans almost 40 years.