What should USA boxing do to secure an Olympic gold for men?

2nd world and ex 2nd world countries cared more about the Olympics and amateurism even when the US was better at boxing which they no longer are. Theres no way to really compensate for that. For an American boxer the Olympics are a stepping stone and cool experience. For a 2nd world boxer its what they've dreamed of their entire life.

Even if the modern 2nd world boxer can go pro now the tradition and prestige of the Olympics from the Cold War era remains.

 

Take a bow, that's a great post.

China also views sport differently on a cultural level. To the Chinese a good performance is as important as a good result and so in competition they often make a match out of what should be a burial. In boxing this is a tricky notion. I don't know how much it exists in boxing, I discovered it in ping pong and it was explained to me as a sporting culture in general not a ping pong culture so I assume it is in boxing and limits success to some degree.

Again, really fantastic post.

 

@themostoverrated
99% of ukrainians did not turn pro during the soviet era! Pro boxing was banned.

Have a look on boxrec at how small the number of ukrainian pro boxers there are, they trump almost everyone when it comes to proportions. Ukraine have just 25 current pro heavyweights, USA have 362- can't believe you even put them in the same sentence when it comes to that.

Odlanier Solis is a 3 x World championship gold medalist, and Olympic Gold medalist, he's right up there with any best ever cuban amateurs. Plenty of their top amateurs have turned pro, just like now with the likes of Andy Cruz and Robeisy Ramirez,

The reason why Ukrainians and Russians have had bettter success in the pros since they could turn pro compared to cubans, and why they've had heavyweight pro champs and cubans haven't., is because they transfer better to the pros than Cubans. Cubans usual tippy tapping running style is more amateur based and harder to adapt, plus they generally have worse chins, and they have worse discipline when they move to the USA.

Well the countries I'm talking about don't make them stupid excusess you are making about. Most of the Ukrainian, Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh world champions in recent years have based themselves in the USA the other side of the world from their home, speaking little english, getting nothing given to them on a plate, and become world champions with hard work and not making stupid excuses. They were either good enough or they weren't good enough,

I could name many Indian, Chinese, or whatever boxers that moved to the USA or UK and failed. Doesn't matter where they live, they fail at boxing.

It's actually shocking that Cuba have never had a pro heavyweight world champion, massive underachievement, considering they've had many good amateurs at the weight basing themselves in the USA. And they've had like about 6 or 7 title shots. They always have one or two contenders up there but never get a champion. Cubans are great at amateur boxing, but they are underachievers in pro boxing.. especially in the heavyweight division.

You can make excuses all you want. But nobody denies that Jamaicans are the best at sprinting and nobody denies that genes are involved in that, they are terrible at every other sport and athletic event, all their Olympic medals are in sprinting only. My point being some countries and people are good at some things and some are good at others. When it comes to Sports and fighting sports, genes and physical attributes are definitely involved, alongside having higher standards. And some nationalities are just tougher than others.

 

Comparing ping pong to boxing! WTF! lol

a ping pong player would never be a fighter! Two totally different things!

 

Speaking of black Africans, there’s a world in which some chain of events leads to Bakole winning a HW title.

 

Could have convinced Bam Rodriguez to stay amateur until 2020, then sent him in back then? Might have been able to grab the Olympic flyweight gold.

to be serious, properly fund amateur boxing / Olympic boxing programs. Due to the size and population of the US, if we properly funded things, made sure our best potential flyweights weren’t ending up working as roofers and our best best potential heavyweights weren’t ending up working as bouncers, we could dominate Olympic boxing.

but nope we can’t have nice things.

 

One thing that's worth pointing out here is that the overall wealth of the country does not necessary directly reflect the funding for the sport. Many poor countries have well funded amateur sports program, which could be down to big public sector - so government sponsorship - or big wealth discrepancies and thus existance of oligarchy class which can afford to throw their money around at sports.

Olympic boxers in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have much better conditions than their American "colleagues" - and are awarded by their government in a way that Americans could only dream of. Olympic champions in Uzbekistan get cars, real estate, direct payments and lifetime pensions....
That's the real reason why U.S did not have an Olympic champion in a while. Incentive structure is different. You don't get much financially for staying in the Amateur game, while pro paths is easier for them - with United States still being the biggest market for the sport.

United States still has the most talent in my opinion - but many of the most talented fighters don't even find it worth their time to wait around in the amateurs to purse Olympic gold.
Even with that - United States team is always among the stronger ones and I think there's been a bit of bad luck recently. Keyshawn Davis and Shakur Stevenson were better Olympians than many gold medalists in recent decades - They just came up against two of the best Olympic boxers of the last 25 years, in Robeisy Ramirez and Andy Cruz.

 

An American minimumweight fighter would likely be a 5’2” Latino born in California or Texas. If we had actual amateur boxing programs, might see some of those dude popping up.

 

Wonderfully well thought out post bud. Excellent.

It's like you're an entirely different person here. I'm left wondering if you actually read the post or not. Either way my information was anecdotal at best and a non-point at worst. Don't pay me much mind. Go through history with the other fella. It's a good convo bro. Respect.

 

Is that so?

I'll put together a list of the 10 greatest American fighters of all-time.

You can select the 10 best fighters from any or all of those four countries, and let's compare the respective lists.

 

China had the whole boxer rebellion thing. Boxings been seen sort of a political thing because of that I think?