The British olympic Boxing team.

Out of the Irish lads that qualified, who are the best bets to get a medal?

 

I know sod all about amateur boxing, but I hear Price and obviously Gavin are good chances. I'll predict 2 silvers and a bronze.

On a side note, that Khalid Yafai looks BIG for a flyweight.

 

Well Darren Sutherland and Ken Egan are the most experienced , and both had good wins over non other than James Degale and Tony Jeffries respectively at the European Union Championships recently but it's very hard to predict .

Most people here seem to fancy John Joe Nevin as he's improved so much over the past year or so and has the perfect style for the computer system .

Some think Paddy Barnes has a chance as he's the only one who actually qualified from the World Championships and gave Zou Shiming(the strong favourite for Gold) a decent contest when going out in that one .
However Barnes is the most inconsistant on the team and lost his EU final fairly widely to Pal Bedak, who himself is a pretty good fighter but if you were hoping for a medal from Barnes the 23-8 loss to Bedak wasn't a positive result .

John Joe Joyce is the least likely to medal imo, a decent fighter and more consistant than Barnes or Sutherland but just hasn't got the quality for a medal .

Despite most people in Ireland(that I've talked to) favouring Barnes and Nevin's chances it simply has to be Sutherland or Egan for me as both are top 10 in their weight class, highly experienced and have very good power so if they're getting outclassed they do have some hope of turning it around .

A huge amount will depend on the draw and with 8 boxers at least some of the Brits are guaranteed a nice one but tbh I wouldn't bet on any Irish boxer medaling in Beijing .

The high performance programme has only been in 4 years and has clearly worked as like Britain we only had 1 Olympian 4 years ago but I think we'd have to be very lucky with the draw or have our guys at their absolute best to have a chance at medalling .

 

The boxing is the only sport I will be bothered about at the olympics. Maybe abit of football too.

 

I would definetly say that Sutherland and Egan are top 8 fighters at thier weight at amature level so with the help of a good draw they could both be in serious medal contention.

 

The boxing will be shown on BBC interactive.

Though if our lads go far, probably on the main channel.

 

how did they get billy joe and bradley saunders to adopt eactly the same position? :think

anyway, i'm backing gavin, billyjoe, price and degale to make the semis. if any of these guys win a medal and turn pro straight after, they could become the new poster-boys / hypejobs of british boxing

 

You lot will probarbly have better medal prospects in 2012. Seems like you've already got some decent fighters at the moment and if the draw is kind to them there is every chance they;ll pick up a medal.

 

I ****ing LOVE the Olympic Games for all sports. Can't wait!!!

 

Price getting some hype. From the BBC -


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ABA chief tips Price for success

David Price will captain the GB boxing team in Beijing
Amateur Boxing Association chief Paul King believes Liverpool's David Price can win one of the two medals Team GB are targeting at the Beijing Olympics.

Great Britain have eight boxers involved in China, their largest team since the Barcelona Games in 1992.

King told BBC Radio Merseyside: "By London it will be ratcheted by another one or two, but in the short term it's two medals out of Beijing.

"I think potentially David Price could be one of those medallists."

King, who hails from Liverpool, believes fellow Merseysider Price is beginning to fulfil his potential.

The 25-year-old is appearing in an Olympic Games for the first time in China, having missed out on qualification for Athens four years ago.

King added: "He's a super-heavyweight and they don't mature until late on as everybody knows.

"I think David is just about on the cusp of starting to grow into what could be a fantastic super-heavyweight, now and in the future."

Despite having impressive international records, Price's fellow Liverpudlians Neil Perkins and Stephen Smith did not qualify for the Olympics.

They can all perform and where there was one Russian years ago there's 14 out there now who can actually do it

ABA chief executive Paul King
King said he has some sympathy for the talented duo: "Unfortunately qualification is a very tough round of boxing.

"The problem in Europe is although we get the largest quota, you're competing against 49 nations now.

"The [former Soviet] states break up into 14 countries, the Balkan states another nine.

"They can all perform and where there was one Russian years ago there's 14 out there now who can actually do it."
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good section on olympic boxing in this months Boxing Monthly.

has profiles on the british team and grades their chances of winning a medal...

khalid yafai, 19, flyweight, Medal prospects: B
joe murray, 21, bantamweight, Medal prospects: A
frankie gavin, 24, lightweight, Medal prospects: A+
brad saunders, 22, lightwelterweight, Medal prospects: A
BJ Saunders, 18, welterweight, Medal Prospects: A
james degale, 22, middleweight, Medal Prospects: A
tony jeffries, 23, light-heavyweight, Medal Prospects: A
david price, 25, superheavyweight, Medal Prospects: A

a little generous with the gradings I think, as to me a grade A means they are more likely than not to win a medal. i mean it would be amazing if 7 out of 8 came back with medals, but just not very likely.

 

For anyone with a Sky box, BBC will have all the Olympic boxing coverage live on interactive starting on Saturday at 6:30am.

Link for schedule:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sol/shared/bsp/hi/olympics2008/epg/html/epg.stm