THE ’84 USA BOXING TEAM BLOWS THE ’76 TEAM OUT OF THE WATER!

Leonard was better than anyone on the 1984 team but it could be argued that 84’ had more depth of quality than 76’. It’s pretty hard to argue against an Olympic roster that had Holyfield, Whitaker and Taylor

 

Both teams were incredibly special. Not sure that I can really say one was better than the other. The USA boxing program was a stellar program for decades before all of the gyms started closing.

 

The 1984 team had Michael Jordan, Steve Alford and Patrick Ewing.

In 1976, the U.S. had Mitch Kupchak, Quinn Buckner and Adrian Dantley … and that was the top end of the lineup.

Not even close.

Oh, boxing? Well, in Olympic terms the ‘76 team accomplished more — the Eastern Bloc boycotted in ‘84 so a lot of those guys had cakewalks to medals with no Russians or Cubans, etc.

Top to bottom, perhaps ‘84 was a shade deeper, but don’t forget that ‘76 had Clint Jackson and John Tate in addition to the gold medal guys (all of whom but Howard Davis won professional world titles).

 

Dean cut Bernard King to keep UNC guys.

 

You want a team that blows either of these out of the water, literally?

The 1984 U.S. Olympic swim team had Rowdy Gaines, Tracy Caukins and Nancy Hogshead, although the West Germans had maybe the best overall swimmer in Michael Gross.

That team swims circles around the Spinks brothers or Meldrick/Pernell.

 

Excellent points (As usual Pat) Some forget Cuba and
the rest of the Communist based countries boycotted
the Olympics that year.
The loss of the Cuban boxing team by itself made the US victories
in 1984 hollow.

 

Tyrrell Biggs the guy who the experts said was going to beat Tyson.

 

Well, I don't know about hollow, but clearly they wouldn't have won so many medals.

Teofilo Stevenson owned Tyrell Biggs. He knocked him out. He even outpointed Biggs a couple months before the Olympics.

Henry Tillman certainly wouldn't have won gold if Cuba or the Soviets (Alexander Yagubkin in particular) would've been there.

Holyfield was a late addition after losing the Olympic trials but winning the Box-offs. He barely medaled as it was.

Meldrick Taylor was so so young, and that tended to hurt the chances of most U.S. amateurs back then against the very veteran Communist teams.

And, again, it always helps when the Olympics are at home. The 1984 Olympics were in Los Angeles.

Tough call, really.

Frankly, I think the 1988 US team was better than the 1984 US team. (Bowe, Mercer, Roy Jones, Kennedy McKinney, Michael Carbajal). I certainly enjoyed watching them compete that year and as pros more than I did the 1984 team.

Also, the 1976 team produced three heavyweight champions (Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks and John Tate) as pros. And there weren't many wins BIGGER all-time at heavyweight than Leon ending the long reign of Muhammad Ali and Michael ending the long reign of Larry Holmes.

Not to mention Michael Spinks being one of the best light heavyweights of all time.

And Sugar Ray Leonard being one of the best fighters ever, period.

The 1976 US team definitely had more of a cultural impact on the sport in the US. They were stars when they turned pro.

There weren't many natural stars when the 1984 team turned pro. The biggest name was CERTAINLY Mark Breland at the time, and he was sort of a bust as a welterweight, given what people expected. When he turned pro, people thought he was going to dominate for years. He never seemed to be the best welterweight in his division at any point and only won vacant belts when someone discarded one or got stripped.

None of the three teams (1976, 1984 or 1988) blew the others out of the water. They were all talented. But the 1976 team faced the whole world. The 1988 US team faced more of the world than 1984 did. The 1984 team had the easiest time.

 

I remember that. Biggs was a great amateur fighter and a guy that was being compared to Ali all the time. He was a big guy that could move but he didn't have Ali's grit, toughness and boxing IQ. Tyson simply ran him over.

 

Legacy wise, in terns if achievement, historical impact and Olympic performance, the 1976 United States Olympic Boxing Squad will forever be the GOAT. Professional wise, with the elimination of the Championship Distance and final peak of punch for pay boxing as a headline sport, they can never be matched.

I don't have any idea how many boxers on the 1984 squad became world champions, or how many titles in all they eventually picked up, but from 1976, John Tate succeeded Ali as WBA and Ring/Lineal HW Champion, Leon dethroned Ali to become undisputed World Heavyweight Champion, Michael Spinks emerged from a loaded LHW Division as the first undisputed Champion since Bob Foster, then actualized boxing's equivalent of the four minute mile with Holmes I, proving that it could be done, and unlike those who followed him, Michael was not on the juice.

Michael Spinks and SRL are indisputably ATGs. I regard the Jinx as the GOAT LHW Champion. (This is different from who the overall GOAT LHW of all time may have been, although I think Michael has a strong case there as well. But he did something no other reigning LHW Titlist had ever done when he moved up, and he did it against a still great version of an ATG HW. Nobody disputes that 1985 Larry Holmes was still vastly superior to what Muhammad Ali was in 1978.)

There was SRL of course, Val Barker Cup winner Howard Davis, Jr. (whose mother died during the games) came within a few seconds of dethroning Rosario and was the fastest man in boxing, and Leo The Lion Randolph came off the deck to dethrone reputable Ricardo Cardona at SBW with an epic 15th round TKO. (SRL also TKOed Benitez in 15 for his first title, then unified the WW Title with his own epic 14th round TKO over Hearns for his second championship.

Leon's 15th round in Ali I was 1978's epic ROTY as he held on to pull of the historic upset as the only one to even dethrone the GOAT in the ring for all HW Title designations, WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine. And John Tate became the final HW to prove it was possible to carry 240 pounds yet win over the Championship Distance as he succeeded Ali against the dangerous Coetzee.

Big John will be remembered for his defeats, but he also took deadly punchers Lou Esa, knocked Mercado out of the unbeaten ranks in two, Knoetze in eight and Coetzee was also undefeated. His tournament run to the WBA Crown in Apartheid South Africa Is commendable as he wasn't expected to be the victor after his exit in Montreal, and in addition to winning over the Championship Distance, he also wiped out Bobick in one. He also went 13 rounds to one against Weaver before being told to hang back in the final round, but it was still impressive domination after what road warrior Hercules had just done to LeDoux. He may have always had that brain tumor which was discovered at autopsy, probably the key to what happened to him against Stevenson, Weaver and Berbick, but that should make what he did achieve even more impressive.

At Montreal, these guys had to deal with Iron Curtain competition. Leon and SRL had to go through Cuban killers Sixto Soria and Andres Aldama. (Going in, interestingly enough, the best Americans were considered to be Clint Jackson and Davey Lee Armstrong. Neither medaled (although Armstrong decisioned a Soviet in the . As for Aldama, he did capture Gold in Moscow for the US boycotted 1980 games by decisioning Mugabe 4-1 in the final.)

The only American medalist from that 1976 team who did not turn professional was bantamweight Silver Medalist Charlie Mooney, who won five bouts in that tournament, but wisely remained an Army careerist, retiring after 22 years with a secure pension, so he'll never go broke or lose health coverage, unlike many former professional ATGs. (Mooney also retired from the Army in 1992, so he may have further been able to retire from post military work by now also. Smart, very disciplined guy.)


Looking at 1984 in LA without any Iron Curtain presence, that US Squad didn't have remotely the same level of opposition to overcome. No Cuba, USSR or East Germany. What the 1976 Squad achieved is epic. Even John Tate won a couple bouts to get Bronze (whereas Bobick didn't medal in Munich). Do Tillman and Biggs get Gold against Iron Curtain Soviets and Cubans? Of one thing I am certain though. Whitaker's showboating cost him the Val Barker Trophy Paul Gonzales took instead. Pernell may not have been insulting the judges with those tactics against Iron Curtain types, and that does gain him the Barker Cup.

What happened in Montreal was completely epic. Added to Ali reviving boxing at Kinshasa, then the movie Rocky, the 1976 Olympic Boxing Team then cemented interest in lower weight boxing.

From Munich in 1972, the only American Gold Medalist was Sugar Ray Seales. Marvin Johnson won Bronze, and they were the only two Americans to turn professional. (1972 also produced Minter, Zamora and Parlov.)

There's simply no comparison legacy wise. 1976 begat 1984, which was a tremendous recovery from the disastrous 1980 crash in Poland which killed Sarge Johnson, Lemuel Steeples, Paul Palomino, the kid brother of Carlos, Hagler sparring partner Andrea McCoy which Marv profusely dedicated his rematch knockout win over Boogaloo Watts to. Czyz, Marvis, Don Curry, Tucker and Ramos were lucky enough to not be on it. (The otherwise fearless Joe Frazier had a fear of flying, so he forbade Marvis from going, saving his son's life.)

No, I can't rate 1984 over 1976, no way.

 

Tyrell Biggs is by far my favorite win by Tyson, and while it didn't go the Championship Distance, it was at least the final HW bout scheduled for 15 rounds. Hence, I tend to give him something of a historical break with his successors. Foreman had also been in bouts scheduled for the Championship Distance, and Holyfield decisioned Qawi in what was among the last great ones to reach the final bell. (If Evander was honest, we might ask him if he could've done that without the juice, but Qawi's convinced he was on steroids for their rematch, being vastly stronger, also scheduled for the Championship Distance, and this time Holyfield laid out the tank Dwight in a way even Foreman couldn't in Qawi's next bout. Nobody else ever stopped Qawi. Looking at Evander-Dwight II, I agree there's something seemingly amiss about how that one transpired. Then, as with Barry Bonds, Holyfield's formerly small head and slender body just inflated in size.)

For me, Biggs represents the sort of extended bout Tyson needed to produce stoppages in, with his two fisted body attack. I do agree with Bleacher Report that Mike is not a top ten ATG HW, as like they stated, he killed the guys he was supposed to, but he never beat another elite HW who was truly elite at the time they squared off. He tended to be a front runner and never got off the deck to win. Foreman al least had Frazier two times, got off the deck twice to knock out Lyle in Ron's peak performance, and obviously Moorer was an ATG one punch rally win where Angelo Dundee asked him at one point, "George, are you all right?"

I absolutely agree Mike belongs in Canastota for unifying four competing title claims for the first time since Frazier did it with the NYSAC, WBA, WBC and Ring Championships. (Joe is a top five ATG HW, the best infighter of any divisional titlist ever, never quit with his two courageous efforts against Foreman, and as an epic defeat, Manila ranks with Ezzard in Marciano I, Conn in Louis I and Corbett against Jeff 2X. And on a broken ankle for ten rounds, Carnera was gallant against the deadly Max Baer. Tyson also never distinguished himself in defeat as Ali did in the FOTC and Norton I. I can't rate Lennox top ten for the same reason, although I agree he rates as an HOFer. Steroid reservations not withstanding, I do rate Holyfield as probably top ten. Gallant in courageous defeat, he also had phenomenal wins, was robbed against the likes of Vaulev, went out at 48 by retiring Neilson in ten at Copenhagen and was never counted out.)

 

1984 had the slightly better pro careers, overalll I think but hardly "blows 1976 team out of the water."

Champions

Evander Holyfield: ATG
Meldrick Taylor: Short but impressive peak. One of the best in the world at his peak
Mark Breland: Underachieved but still two time alphabet champ
Pernell Whitaker: ATG
Virgil Hill: longtime and multiple titlist
Frank Tate
Tyrel Biggs: May have won a title in a world without Mike Tyson

1976:

Ray Leonard: ATG
Michael Spinks: ATG
Leon Spinks: Greatest Upset or one of the greatest
Leo Randolph: got an alphabet belt briefly
John Tate: impressive until derailed by one Mike Weaver left hook.

1976 team accomplisment at the olympics was more impressive because they faced the Soviets and the Soviet block nations. ie their overall competition was higher

 

Tyson was a 12-1 favorite day before the fight and it went down to 8-1 by first bell with some gambling types rolling the dice on the upset with such high odds to drive it down.

I’d like to see a list of ‘experts’ who picked Biggs, lol.

They should have picked Buster Douglas.

 

Biggs was already sliding before the Tyson fight

He looked better against Tillis in '86 than Tyson did

But then looked bad in decisions over Jeff Sims and a fading Renaldo Snipes

By the time of the Tyson fight it was seen as a mismatch wheras in early 86 they were seen as on a similar level