2008 Olympic Games Beijing 8.8.08-8.24.08 (with spoilers)

[Kolya]

Oh Great, now we get to have a 15 minute segment of Bob Papa, Teddy Atlas and Jim Grey spot off about stuff they don't know what the hell they're talking about.

[gensu3k1]

Papa and Atlas know the judging was awful, and the putrid results from last night, especially the atroicous Boonjumnong fight, deserves at least 15 minutes.

This olympic contest was a joke and deserved as much scorn as they could give it.

[Kolya]

Yes, the judging and officiating overall was bad. That was obvious. It still doesn't mean that Papa or Atlas know what the hell they're talking about. They don't. All they'll do is whine and complain about it, but they aren't going to do anything else about it, they have no suggestions.

[geenolv]

boxmel wrote:
Quote:
Amateur boxing was much more exciting without the headgear and bigger gloves.
It doesn't have to be scored like pro boxing, but when you eliminate the chance of a one punch knockout you take a lot of the drama and excitement out of it.


That was semi-pro boxing, not amateur.


No, that was amateur boxing, not semi pro.
There were no headgear or big gloves back when amateur boxing was an exciting sport.
The Golden Gloves fighters didn't wear headgear until around 1981 and the Olympics until 1984.
The fights were definetly more exciting and the holding, running stalling, and slapping that is encouraged and rewarded today would never have been allowed.

[Kolya]

boxmel wrote:
Quote:
Amateur boxing was much more exciting without the headgear and bigger gloves.
It doesn't have to be scored like pro boxing, but when you eliminate the chance of a one punch knockout you take a lot of the drama and excitement out of it.


That was semi-pro boxing, not amateur.


No, that was amateur boxing, not semi pro.
There were no headgear or big gloves back when amateur boxing was an exciting sport.
The Golden Gloves fighters didn't wear headgear until around 1981 and the Olympics until 1984.
The fights were definetly more exciting and the holding, running stalling, and slapping that is encouraged and rewarded today would never have been allowed.

GUess what? We're not being paid. Pay me and I'll care if fans are entertained or not. Until that time, I'm going to box safely and keep my brain cells intact.

[Dennis]

ESNP2 Friday Night Fights are on. They just showed Michael Spinks and Leon Spinks win their gold medals. They boxed a Russian and a Cuban respectively in their final bouts. They both knocked their opponents down. They threw a lot of punches and the bouts were exciting. The USA won 5 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze in that Olympics - 1976. We need to return to that glory and we need amateur boxing to have that kind of excitement again.

[boxmel]

Boxing was more exciting in the 80's WITH headgear and the current rules. No computer scoring; no knowing if you were ahead or not. More cautions were given for holding and wrestling. I can remember watching Wild World of Sports when they showcased out dual meets and national championships. That's what got me hooked.

[Kolya]

Maybe they should go back to closed scoring and stop with the idea of "let them fight" when they're just wrestling and clutching and start calling it. And I know that's an AIBA idea, so maybe they should start doing that too.

[geenolv]

boxmel wrote:
Quote:
Amateur boxing was much more exciting without the headgear and bigger gloves.
It doesn't have to be scored like pro boxing, but when you eliminate the chance of a one punch knockout you take a lot of the drama and excitement out of it.


That was semi-pro boxing, not amateur.


No, that was amateur boxing, not semi pro.
There were no headgear or big gloves back when amateur boxing was an exciting sport.
The Golden Gloves fighters didn't wear headgear until around 1981 and the Olympics until 1984.
The fights were definetly more exciting and the holding, running stalling, and slapping that is encouraged and rewarded today would never have been allowed.

GUess what? We're not being paid. Pay me and I'll care if fans are entertained or not. Until that time, I'm going to box safely and keep my brain cells intact.

Amateurs weren't paid back then either they just put on better fights than today.
If you don't care what the people paying to see you think and are worried about keeping your "brain cells intact" then you probably are in the wrong sport.
Even with the big gloves and headgear I'm sure that your going to lose some brain cells if your an active boxer.

[Kolya]

boxmel wrote:
Quote:
Amateur boxing was much more exciting without the headgear and bigger gloves.
It doesn't have to be scored like pro boxing, but when you eliminate the chance of a one punch knockout you take a lot of the drama and excitement out of it.


That was semi-pro boxing, not amateur.


No, that was amateur boxing, not semi pro.
There were no headgear or big gloves back when amateur boxing was an exciting sport.
The Golden Gloves fighters didn't wear headgear until around 1981 and the Olympics until 1984.
The fights were definetly more exciting and the holding, running stalling, and slapping that is encouraged and rewarded today would never have been allowed.

GUess what? We're not being paid. Pay me and I'll care if fans are entertained or not. Until that time, I'm going to box safely and keep my brain cells intact.

Amateurs weren't paid back then either they just put on better fights than today.
If you don't care what the people paying to see you think and are worried about keeping your "brain cells intact" then you probably are in the wrong sport.
Even with the big gloves and headgear I'm sure that your going to lose some brain cells if your an active boxer.

No, I honestly couldn't care less what people watching think. I box smart and box my style and that's just what it is. Just out of curiosity, what do you consider to be "big gloves"?

[geenolv]

Anything over 10oz seems big to me.
Of course you should fight with whatever style suits you as should everyone.
But when boxing is losing fans because of too many saftey first styles and you wonder why no is interested any more in it the way they used to be it should make you think.
I don't know you and I'm not criticizing you, but to me if you get in the ring you should always try to give the fans a good fight.
If you are a novice boxer learning your sport that's one thing but if you're an open fighter with a lot of fights going for an Olympic Championship and you don't care to give an exciting fight then somethings wrong.

[Kolya]

So 12 oz gloves is too big? That's what we use above 152 in the US. At the Olympics they're all using 10oz gloves. I have a fellow boxer from my state who went to the Olympic Trials last year-when he boxes in his hometown he'll put on a show and he'll brawl away. But when he's at Nationals, Golden Gloves, etc. you box smart. It's just not worth it to get busted up especially at a tournament unless you're being paid for it.

[geenolv]

Maybe I'm old but we used 8oz gloves when I fought amateur as a middleweight.
Maybe they are padding the gloves differently now but they just seem much bigger than before and seem to take most of the power out the the sport.
I know about fighting in tournements too but if you're in the finals you have no reason not to let it all hang out and I didn't see many fighters doing that.
Once your down a few points in todays boxing there's almost no way to win and the fighters I've seen in the Olympics know that a ko is pretty much impossible so they just let time run out.

[hurricanemitch14]

I just watched the wilder/russo bout and im not watching anymore olympic boxing....i cant wait to see russo get ko'd by wilder in the pro's...he sucks.

[therealPunchDrunk]

Back in the day it there was 30 feet of snow and it was uphill when we walked 50 miles to school, and uphill going home as well, blah blah... Amateur boxing's still exciting, the judging sucks though, and it sucked 25 years ago as well.

The gloves are just fine, and there's nothing wrong with headgear. You don't hear Nascar fans, NFL fans or NHL fans bitch about the athletes wearing helmets, so the headgear is an excuse, not a reason why boxing's lost some of it's popularity. Guess what? Pro boxing's lost a lot of ground too. Oh yeah, back in the day they fought 15-20-100 rounds and drank whiskey in the intervals. Get a time machine

[boxmel]

Maybe I'm old but we used 8oz gloves when I fought amateur as a middleweight.

That was then and this is now. Amateur boxing has changed since you were "fighting."

I've seen in the Olympics know that a ko is pretty much impossible so they just let time run out.

The goal of amateur boxing is to outpoint your opponent, not KO him or her. That's why KO's only count as one scoring punch if they were legal and landed in the scoring area. What you saw in the Olympics was the boxers ahead in points running so they didn't lose their lead - NOT because they couldn't throw a KO punch.

[geenolv]

Back in the day it there was 30 feet of snow and it was uphill when we walked 50 miles to school, and uphill going home as well, blah blah... Amateur boxing's still exciting, the judging sucks though, and it sucked 25 years ago as well.

The gloves are just fine, and there's nothing wrong with headgear. You don't hear Nascar fans, NFL fans or NHL fans bitch about the athletes wearing helmets, so the headgear is an excuse, not a reason why boxing's lost some of it's popularity. Guess what? Pro boxing's lost a lot of ground too. Oh yeah, back in the day they fought 15-20-100 rounds and drank whiskey in the intervals. Get a time machine

If you think today's amateur boxing especially the Olmpic boxing is better than in years past so be it. If things keep going the way they are though it will soon be a complete non contact sport.
Why don't we just have the fighters, sorry "boxers" in seperate rings fighting computer images of each other this way no one gets hit at all.You can just judge their skill at shadow boxing.


Seriously though and I say this as a real fan of boxing both amateur and pro. if something doesnt change with amateur boxing there will be less and less people intersted in watching it. I've seen amost of the fights in this years Olympics and almost all of them have been very bad.
If no is interested in watching a sport and it has no popularity it will cease to exist.
Out of all the people I know in Las Vegas where I live and in New york where I'm from I'm the only one who is watching the boxing.You may not care what I or anyone else thinks but when I see a sport that I love dying in front of my eyes it bothers me.
I don't need a time machine ,I know that headgear is here to stay all I've been saying is boxing was much more exciting without them.I know amateur boxing is about trying to outpoint your opponent too but if you try to eliminante all danger and even the slight possibility that, god forbid a " fight " might happen no one will care about the sport anymore.

[PRKO]

The goal of amateur boxing is to outpoint your opponent, not KO him or her. That's why KO's only count as one scoring punch if they were legal and landed in the scoring area. What you saw in the Olympics was the boxers ahead in points running so they didn't lose their lead - NOT because they couldn't throw a KO punch.

Well it's kind of hard to outpoint your opponent when the judges rob you of an earned victory, these Olympics were a disgraceful joke. I really like amateur boxing but how would I allow one of my boxers after working so hard to go to a competition of this grade and just get robbed, it's very fustrating to see this. When you are a boxer you know when you have lost and when you have really won.

I really question the biased judging of AIBA specially internationally, how in the world (I speak on behalf of latin american boxing) in the Centro and Pan American Games countries like Puerto Rico, Dominican Rep., Brazil, Venezuela and Equador excel agaisnt the Cubans and when we face off in the Olympics we just get blown out (In the eyes of international judges).

I saw the McWilliams fight vesus the Cuban Laffita and I just don't know how Laffita won I mean come on this kid defeated Bartelemy and Salinas in convincing fashion, Laffita was just running all around the ring and just threw flurries that did not even seem to connect. I saw an interview and McWilliams was really fustrated with the system, guess what he's turning pro and with this scoring I doubt that our younger fighters like Gonzalez and Pedraza would want to stay in the amateurs. I'm not saying that all were robbed but something has to be done with the system.

Running is not Boxing, there is a difference with utilizing the ring, creating angles and maintaining distance. There is no apreciation of effective boxing with this system it seems more like fencing you poke and run or you shell defence your way in and try to score with a straight shot. Basiclly this is what you have to do. There is no apreciation if you stand there using shoulder rolls or your waist to pass or take shots off, guess what they might score on you and the funniest thing they probably didn't even hit you.

I really like it back in the 80's , the Jones fight was probably one of the worst decisions but back then it was not as bad as it is now.

[Canada]

Wow, That Lomanchenko is a beast, without a doubt he must win the Outstanding boxer award. Lets see if there is any controversy there.

[Kolya]

So had Dan Campbell gotten his pink slip yet?

[Andrey]

How come US tv not showing boxing finals ?
They show almost all fights before finals and now nothing. Am I missing something?

[Kolya]

Yeah, it's on NBC tonight with the Basketball final and a few other finals as well.

[Andrey]

You mean CNBC which started right now?

Yeah, it's on NBC tonight with the Basketball final and a few other finals as well.

[Kolya]

No, I mean regular NBC, that's what my TV guide is showing/

[Andrey]

Thanks for answevers, I still don't see it though. NBC showing jumps to the water, and nothing about boxing.

No, I mean regular NBC, that's what my TV guide is showing/