Beeston mentioned something in another thread about the lack of good pros coming from the Olympics. I only looked at medallists here but when I'm bored enough I'll look at all the competitiors for these Games and see how they did/are doing as pros. 2004: 44 Medalists World champs (big 4): Yuriorkis Gamboa, Vitali Tajbert, Amir Khan, Andre Ward Fought for World title: Andre Dirrell Rigondeaux, Yudel Johnson, Golovkin, and Povetkin are all prospects/contenders. ---- 2000: 48 Medalists World champs (big 4): Brahim Asloum, Wladimir Sidorenko, Andriy Kotelnik, Jermain Taylor, Zsolt Erdei, Sultan Ibragimov Fought for World title: Rocky Juarez, Rudolf Kraj Rigondeaux could still do something (as could Audley ) ---- 1996: 48 Medalists World champs: Istvan Kovacs, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Julio Pablo Chacon, Leonard Dorin, Daniel Santos, David Reid, Vasilly Jirov, Antonio Tarver, Wladimir Klitschko Fought for title: Zoltan Lunka, Oktay Urkal, Rhosshi Wells, Thomas Ulrich, Luan Krasniqi ---- 1992: 48 Medalists World champs: Istvan Kovacs (also fought in the 96 Games), Tim Austin, Joel Casamayor, Wayne McCullough, Oscar De La Hoya, Leonard Dorin (also fought in 96), Robin Reid, Chris Byrd Fought for title: Marco Rudolph, Michael Carruth, Torsten May, David Tua
I expected there to be a bit more of a decline than that, to be honest - then again, in 1992 the IBF and especially the WBO :-( weren't as commonly fought for/prestigious as they are now. Plus there's the fact that world titles are thrown around like confetti these days :think I've been looking for a while for an artcile from Boxing Monthly by Ron Borges, it contained an interview with Teddy Atlas talking about the boxing in the Beijing Olympics - the general theme was that it was awful, and has been getting worse since the RJJ fiasco. To me, the scoring system ruins it - you aren't boxing against your opponent, you are up against the judges.... and the open scoring. You can spend all the time running once you are ahead, I know the refs can deduct points, but as they don't speak to them, instead making spastic gestures, nothing ever seems to happen - same with the holding. Richie Woodhall spent most of the games moaning, usually when commentators are moaning non-stop you switch the sound off, I just laughed at some of the scoring - especially that involving Chinese fighters.
