How would Jirov have fared...

Yeah it is

I'm pretty sure I saw one of Vargas' bouts in those Olympics, probably his losing effort albeit razor-close to the excellent Romanian Marian Simion who was a highly decorated amateur

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I used to get Boxing Monthly ever month as I did every boxing mag. Sadly it's being discontinued from now on

Michael Montero, who was given his first break in the business by the Boxing Monthly team and has had many articles published in it, was pretty cut up about it

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It was a great mag

I always really wanted to order tapes from those dealers advertising in it in the back pages but I never did

I used to buy every boxing mag on the market every month (Boxing News every week)

'An Olympic snub 16 years ago still motivates Joe Calzaghe, the world's No 1 super-middleweight boxer, as he prepares for his toughest fight yet when he takes on Bernard Hopkins in Las Vegas this weekend.

Enzo Calzaghe, Joe's father and coach, claimed his son was deliberately shunted out of a place at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 by a cabal on the Welsh ABA committee.

Calzaghe Snr added that his son, who is unbeaten in 44 contests as a professional, has never gone public about an issue which sent both men to the point of despair.

"I want the truth to be known about this," explained the celebrated trainer. "Joe glossed over it in his autobiography, saying he did not get in the Olympic team because his 'face didn't fit', but Joe was deliberately kept out of the team by a group of selectors within the Welsh ABA in Cardiff."

Father and son have returned to their motivational tool ahead of the Welshman's light-heavyweight contest with Hopkins, the most renowned opponent on his 45-fight career record, in a showdown at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday night. "Joe not going to the Olympics is still the worst moment of our working life together in the last 20 years. He would have walked away with a gold medal in Barcelona," Calzaghe Snr said.

"It still infuriates us today. Joe was already primed to go to the Olympics in 1992. He was the ABA champion, but there was animosity towards him from within the Welsh ABA council, who decided that because he could not fight in an international event against Norway in Newport - even though he had an injured hand - he had become bigheaded. That's what we were told, anyway.

"They decided, on the basis of that, that they did not want him in the team. He had already qualified, I had the passport, all the details of his membership of the Olympic squad, he was already attending training sessions with the GB team at Crystal Palace."

It was the lowest point in Joe's career, and we still talk about it regularly today, and use it as motivation to prove the doubters wrong.

"Due to that cabal on the Welsh ABA, Britain was deprived of a very, very good chance of a gold medal. It was me who had told them he could not box because he had an injury. This is the truth, and I want people to know about it."

Calzaghe Snr, who is of Sardinian extraction, added that he believes the culture of "supporting the gallant loser" in British sport, holds back many sports-people from developing their true potential. Calzaghe added that until last December, when his son was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year and he was awarded Trainer of the Year, he was mystified by the lack of recognition afforded the father-and-son team.

He said: "I have not had so much as a pat on the back from my own community in Newbridge. What have you got to do in this country to be recognised as great at sport?"

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I don't think so.

He definitely would've come back with at least a silver or gold had he been selected to go IMO. He looked really good at LMW and MW and he stopped all but one of his opponents at those weights on route to winning his second and third senior ABA titles which was especially impressive because he fought some very good guys - Glen Catley, Jason Matthews and Dean Francis - and it had been his first year fighting at those weights. Only Catley made it out of the 2nd round.

I don't think he did go to the World championships the following year. He turned pro in 1993 after winning his third consecutive ABA title (obviously all at different weights) which was the year after Barcelona.

Never been myself but my best mate has and he loved it over there.