Boxing- 2012 London Olympic preview
By: Travis Kennedy
Well it’s that time again ladies and gentlemen! It’s time to support your countries boxers at the 2012 Olympics. It seems as though it was only yesterday I was tuned in and watching Rau’shee Warren, Demetrius Andrade, and many other amateur boxers from the United States competing at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Although we failed to win a gold medal that year, it was still an exciting and proud moment for the United States, and its Amateur boxing program. Since the first year boxing was introduced at the Olympics in 1904, the United States has produced many notable gold medal winners such as, Leon and Micheal Spinks (1976), Muhammad Ali (1960), George Foreman (1968), Floyd Patterson (1952), Pernell Whitaker (1984), Oscar De La Hoya (1992), and The United States last gold medalist, Andre Ward (2004). These fighters all turned out to be great professional boxers, and many will end up being considered as the top 100 or 200 boxers to ever live. The Olympic Games played a large role in preparing these fighters for long and lustrous professional careers.
The 2012 Olympics will be held in London England. The boxing competition will be held between July 28th and August 12th at the ExCel sports center. The United States has named Basheer Abdullah as their head coach. Abdullah is very experienced, and coached the U.S boxing team at the Athens Olympics in 2004. He served as a technical advisor to the American teams in 2000 and 2008 as well. Mr. Abdullah will also be accompanied by assistant coaches Candelario Lopez, and Israel Acosta. In my opinion, the United States has a great group of coaches for this year’s Olympic Games!
This year’s Olympics have 10 weight categories in the men’s division. This includes: Light flyweight (49kg), Flyweight (52kg), Bantamweight (56kg), Lightweight (60kg), Light welterweight (64kg), Welterweight (69kg), Middleweight (75kg), Light heavyweight (81kg), Heavyweight (91kg), and Super heavyweight (+91kg). The United States qualified a boxer this year for every division except Light flyweight. The scoring of Olympic style boxing is quite different from professional boxing. The boxers are scored for every successful punch landed on their opponents head or upper body. There are five judges watching the fight that score for every punch they see land successfully. The fights are three rounds long, with each round being three minutes. A boxer may also win their fight if their opponent is unable to continue, or if the referee stops the bout. The ref may feel that a boxer is unable to continue and call a halt to the match. Knocking out an opponent in Olympic boxing isn’t too common, but it does happen. Olympic style boxing requires all boxers to wear headgear, 10 oz. boxing gloves, a mouthpiece, and a protective cup. These safety precautions help keep amateur boxing one of the safest sports!
In this year’s Olympics we will be witnessing history! For the first time ever at an Olympic games, not only will there be men’s boxing, but there will be women’s boxing as well! The women’s division includes three events, Flyweight (51kg), Lightweight (60kg), and Middleweight (75kg). The women’s matches will be four rounds long, with each round lasting two minutes. Thirty six women from across the world qualified to represent their country, and compete for a chance at a gold medal. I’m personally very excited to watch the women’s events this year! Among the thirty six women qualified for the games, is Houston Texas native, Marlen Esparza. Esparza is the first United States female Olympic boxer to qualify. She will be competing in the Flyweight division, and has won multiple national championships, a bronze medal in the 2006 world championships, and a gold medal in the 2008 Pan American Games. I would like to personally wish you the best of luck, and thank you for proudly representing your country!
In every sport or event, there is always a team or athlete favored to win it all. Some teams or fighters may appear to have more experience, and or skill than the others, and simply be expected to win. There are two hundred and fifty men qualified in the boxing summer games, and thirty six women. Unfortunately, they won’t all be awarded with gold medals. Some of the current favorites to win gold are: Anthony Joshua (Great Britain), Lazaro Alvarez (Cuba), Rau’Shee Warren (U.S), Claressa Shields (U.S), Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine), Ren Cancan (China), Savannah Marshall (Great Britain), and Nicola Adams (Great Britain). The United States boxers no longer dominate the Olympics like they did in the 80’s and 90’s. International teams have really come a long way, and are favorites to win many gold medals at the 2012 games. Will the United States win a gold medal in 2012? We will know the answer to that question August 9th for our competing women, and August 11th, and 12th, for our men’s division.
The 2012 Olympic Games are sure to be exciting and display plenty of action. Much can change in four years, and we now have our women’s boxing to watch and support. If you are a diehard boxing fan, the Olympic Games cannot be missed. No matter what country you’re from, be sure to root on your hard working athletes! Keep in mind, the medal winners we are watching compete this year, could quite possibly be the next world champions, or even become pound for pound greats in the sport in the years to come.
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