Boxing Amateur

As I look back through the decades of amateur boxing history of the BC Golden Gloves from 1939 to 2009, there have been many BC Golden Boys such as two time Golden Boy Dick Findlay and three time BC Junior Golden Boy Cliff Ballendine.  But, neither of them and many more are in any boxing or sports hall of fame.

As I look back through the decades of amateur boxing history of the BC Diamond Belt tournaments in the Fifties and  Sixties in Vancouver  or the revival of the tournament at Victoria in 1980, there have been many Diamond Boys such as Vancouver Firefighters Boxing Club’s  Dave Wylie in 1967 and Victoria’s Gary Robinson in 1980.  But, neither of them and many more are in any boxing or sports hall of fame.

As I look back through the decades of amateur boxing history of the British Columbia amateur boxing clubs, past and present, there are and have been many clubs of distinction that have contributed to the success of Amateur Boxing in British Columbia in a variety of ways.  There was the London Boxing Club of Victoria that hosted a Vancouver Island Amateur Boxing Championship in 1964, hosted club cards that featured the 1964 Olympic Games boxer Fred Desrosiers, and hosted a 1976 BC Selects vs NW England junior boxing tournament that included 1984 Olympic bronze medal winner Dale Walters.  There is the Nanaimo Boxing Club that revived boxing in Nanaimo in 1971 by Dan Wright and Brian Zelley, had the first Canadian senior boxing champion Jack Snaith (1973) since 1967 when Bill Taylor of the London Boxing Club was champion.   There was the  North West Eagles Boxing Club that  hosted many of the BC Bronze Gloves tournaments in the Sixties for junior novice boxers, produced various Canadian champions such as Chris Ius and Les Hamilton under the direction of head coach Elio Ius and coaches Mel Ius and Terry Cooke, and allowed there gym to be used by Muhammed Ali and George Chuvalo, Manuel Gonzalez and Clyde Gray in 1972 before a major pro boxing show.  There have been many other boxing clubs scattered throughout British Columbia but they are not included in any boxing or sports hall of fame.

Throughout the decades there have been many excellent officials and regional amateur boxing commissioners such as Vancouver Island’s Bert Wilkinson (Sixties), Howard Curling (Seventies) and Rick Brought (Eighties) but their  names are not mentioned or listed on any boxing or sports hall of fame.

Over the years, some folks have been inducted into a  Provincial Sports Hall of Fame such as Harold Mann and Bert Lowes (BC) or Eddie Haddad (Manitoba), but there are many deserving individuals, teams and clubs that are worthy of such recognition such as the British Columbia senior boxing team of 1970, but they appear to be forgotten memories of a few.

The British Columbia Amateur Boxing Association (Boxing BC) has the provincial responsibility to ensure the proper organization, education and growth in the sport.  To understand true education should not be to limit the learning to coaches and officials clinics but to educate the members and general public of the history of the sport of amateur boxing in British Columbia.   The establishment of a BC AMATEUR BOXING HALL OF FAME would provide an important public relations opportunity and recognize some of the many past boxers, coaches, officials, and other builders, and members of the sports news media. Buy online ticket with payday advance

Pierce Egan, the famed 19th-century boxing journalist who coined the term “sweet science,” wrote that “Drummers and boxers, to acquire excellence, must begin young.”

It is as if the fates conspired to push 22-year-old Deontay Wilder toward pugilism just to prove Egan wrong. The 6-foot-7 heavyweight, whose bronze medal on Friday kept alive the U.S. streak of winning a boxing medal in every Olympics in which it competed, never meant to be a boxer. Not like his USA Boxing teammates, all of whom were ducking and diving by age 12.

Wilder grew up as a basketball player in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He was in his freshman year playing at Shelton Community College when his girlfriend became pregnant. It wasn’t by design. An early ultrasound showed that Wilder’s daughter would be born with spina bifida.

“Our hearts dropped,” Wilder said. “Doctors gave us the choice to terminate the pregnancy, but after a while I just said, it really doesn’t matter, this is my little girl.”

Wilder dropped out of school and found work at Red Lobster and driving a Budweiser truck so he could support his daughter and shuttle her to doctors and hospitals to fix her clubbed feet. But there was a hole in his heart where basketball had been, and with team sports out of the question, boxing was something that offered a flexible schedule. Thus, 3-year-old Naieya Wilder helped keep the U.S. medal streak alive by turning her daddy to boxing. “She’s healthy and smart,” Wilder said, proudly.

For the first time in 20 years, USA Boxing established a residence program and required Olympic boxers to live in Colorado Springs beginning last September, a response to America’s dearth of boxing gold in recent Olympics after a gilded history. Wilder, with his coach’s blessing, seized the opportunity to “play catch up,” he says, with intensive training.

But other team members resented being plucked from their long-time coaches. David Ali, father of 20-year-old lightweight Sadam Ali, who lost his opening bout, said before the Olympics that Sadam “could have gotten better training [at home in New York]. He has two trainers here.”

Light welterweight Javier Molina, 18, who lost his first fight at the Olympics, said that the residence program “takes me out of my comfort zone. The only thing I like is I get to know the other Olympians, but I don’t know if that’ll help me. This isn’t like a basketball team.” Molina said that while the USA Boxing coaches are very good coaches, Roberto Luna, the man who has coached him since he was eight, “knows my weaknesses.”

It didn’t help that some of the coaches were loath to part with their prized pupils, and many continued to exert influence from afar by email and phone. Wilder’s coach, Jay Deas, bought into the idea that Wilder needed to make up for lost time, and “did not interfere,” says USA Boxing coach Dan Campbell. “Other coaches didn’t want to cooperate.”

In the broader view, though, Egan had a point about experience. This U.S. team was extremely young, with an average age just older than 20, and only one returning Olympian, world champion flyweight Rau’shee Warren, who lost his opening bout.

Wilder could use more amateur bouts to hone his skills, but his punishing power — in a test prior to the Olympics, his jab measured stronger than all but one other U.S. boxer’s power punch — may ensure this is his last Olympics. Wilder said he’s already gotten calls from promoters. In other countries, so-called amateurs enjoy great financial support.

“International boxers, like Cubans, they get paid to stay amateur; we don’t get paid to stay,” said Ali, the first Olympic team member since Riddick Bowe in 1988 to hail from New York City, where boxing gyms have dwindled from a high of 150 in the mid-1980s to 50. “So we go for it once, and turn pro.”

To the detriment of both amateur and professional boxing.

The 2012 Olympics takes place in London, and will have a lot of work to do to live up to the extravaganza that took place in the Chinese Capital last year. Work is already under way in building the Olympic Village and making sure that all the necessary elements are in place to ensure that all the athletes, and the supporters who are watching from the stands, are made feel at home. London is a major city and is obviously well-suited to hosting the Olympic Games. More work needs to be done though, and will no doubt be done right up to the start of the games, which the top brass in the United Kingdom will hope can live up to previous years.

BOXING

Boxing was a major success at the Beijing Games with hosts China, the United Kingdom and Ireland benefiting greatly and winning a number of medals in the different weight divisions. In the United Kingdom, James De Gale won a gold medal at middleweight level, while bronze medals went to Tony Jeffries and David Price. China were extremely successful also, winning four medals – 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze. Gold medals went to Zou Shiming and Zhao Xiaoping, silver went to Zhang Zhilei and a bronze medal went to Hanati Silamu.

Perhaps the biggest success story though was related to Ireland, who came into the games with very little optimism around getting a medal. The country has been shrouded in Olympic controversy in recent times with Michelle Smith De Bruin’s four year ban in 1998 for tampering with a sample, and also the stripping of equestrian star Cian O’Connor’s medal after his horse failed a drugs test. Indeed, even in Beijing, horse rider Denis Lynch was disqualified for a drug-related incident. So, for the Boxers to come home with three medals was a terrific achievement. For the record, Paddy Barnes won bronze medals and Kenny Egan was extremely unfortunate not to get a gold, but he was more than happy to settle for a silver medal.

WOMEN’S BOXING

With so much good work being done for Irish Boxing by the likes of Billy Walsh, a former Buffer’s Alley hurler, then there is genuine cause for optimism with London 2012 very much on the horizon. They will also be hopeful that women’s boxing will be included on the itinerary in three years, largely due to the exploits of one Katie Taylor. The 22 year old, who attended St. Killian’s school in her native Bray, Co. Wicklow, has forged quite a reputation for herself, especially in the last four years. She started boxing, under the tutelage of her father Peter, at the age of 12 and would go on to be crowned European Amateur Champion in 2005. She would regain her crown in 2006, before going to taking the World Championship crown in 2007 and 2008. It is no wonder that the Irish Sporting Council is so eager to have women’s boxing included in the next Olympic games.

INCLUSION

With so many people across the world so eager to have it included in the competition, it simply wouldn’t make sense if it wasn’t included in three years time. When there is such a healthy competition at both European and World Championship level, it is clear that there would be much for an expectant audience to marvel in should we see it take place in London. Chances are that people won’t find out what the decision of the Olympic Council for another while but, in the meantime, the top-class Boxers like Taylor will have to continue doing what they do best until they know whether they can compete or not.

Only men’s competition. No women’s competition.

Boxers qualify for the Olympics through performances at regional tournaments in Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and Oceania. The number of boxers accepted from any region depends upon the strength of boxing in that region and varies between weight divisions.

The boxers are paired off at random for the Olympic Games, without regard to ranking. They fight in a single-elimination tournament, with the winner advancing to the next round and the loser dropping out of the competition. Winning boxers progress through the preliminary rounds to the quarterfinals and semifinals. The two semifinals winners fight for the gold and silver medals, while both losing semifinalists receive bronze medals.

Bouts consists of a total of four rounds. Each round is two minutes in length with a one-minute interval between each round. Contests are won by knockout or on points. A point is awarded for a scoring hit with marked part of the glove on the opponent’s head (side or front) or body (above the belt).

A panel of five judges decides which hits are scoring hits. Judges each have two buttons before them, one for each boxer, and they press the appropriate button when they believe a boxer delivers a scoring hit.

An electronic scoring system registers a point whenever three or more judges press the button for one boxer within a second of each other. No point is awarded for a hit unless three of the five judges agree.

When two boxers trade blows in a flurry of infighting, where no full-force punches can land, the judges wait until the end of the exchange and award a point to the boxer who got the better of it. At the end of the bout, when each judge’s points have been totaled, the boxer awarded the most points by a majority of the judges is declared the winner.

If two boxers end up with the same number of points, the judges decide a winner by assessing such factors as which of the two took the lead and showed better style.

If the judges determine those factors to be even, they turn to which competitor showed better defense. Punches to an opponent’s arms do not score points. Punches that are judged to have no force behind them do not score points.

When a boxer commits a foul, he faces a caution, a warning or, in extreme cases, disqualification. Two cautions for a particular offence mean an automatic warning, and three warnings of any kind mean disqualification.

Some of the more common fouls include hitting below the belt, holding, pressing an arm or elbow into the opponent’s face, forcing the opponent’s head over the ropes, hitting with an open glove, hitting with the inside of the glove and hitting the opponent on the back of the head, neck or body. Others include passive defense, not stepping back when ordered to break, speaking offensively to the referee and trying to hit the opponent immediately after the order to break.

During a bout, a boxer is considered down if, as a result of being hit, he touches the floor with any part of his body besides his feet. He also is down if he is even partly outside the ropes or hanging on them helplessly from being hit, or if he still is standing but is judged to be unable to continue.

When a boxer is down, the referee starts counting from one to 10 seconds. The count now is timed electronically, with a beep sounding for each number, but referees often still choose to call them out. The referee also is required to signal the count to the downed boxer by holding a hand in front of him and counting with his fingers. If the boxer is still down after the 10 seconds, the opponent wins on a knockout.

Even if a boxer gets back on his feet immediately, he is obliged to take a mandatory eight-count. After the eight seconds, the referee will give the command “Box” if he feels the match should continue. If the boxer gets to his feet but falls again without receiving another blow, the referee starts counting at eight.

A boxer who is down and being counted can be saved by the bell only in the final round of the final. In all other rounds and bouts, the count continues after the bell sounds.

If any boxer takes three counts in one round or four counts in the bout, the referee will stop the fight and declare the opposing boxer the winner.

If the referee has to stop a bout in the first round because a boxer has suffered a cut eye or a similar injury, the other boxer is declared the winner. If it happens in the second or third round, though, the judges’ point tallies up to that time determine the winner.

Three doctors sit at ringside and each has the authority to stop a bout if medical reasons appear to necessitate it

If both boxers go down at the same time, counting continues as long as one remains down. If both remain down at 10, the boxer with the most points is declared the winner.

Other ways a boxer may be declared the winner during a bout include the referee stopping the bout because the opponent is taking too much punishment, or the opponent being disqualified or withdrawing, perhaps because of injury. Also, the opponent’s seconds could decide he is suffering too much punishment and throw in the towel.

Boxers are required to shake hands before the first round and after the results have been declared.

The age limits for Olympic boxing are a minimum age of 17 and a maximum age of 34.

Boxers must be clean shaven or facial hair restricted to a small moustache no longer than the length of the upper lip. Beards are banned.

Before every bout, a medical examiner must declare the boxers fit.

Boxers must weigh in every day.

There are 11 weight divisions (with maximum weights) as follows:

• Light flyweight (48 kg)
• Flyweight (51kg)
• Bantamweight (54kg)
• Featherweight (57kg)
• Lightweight (60kg)
• Light welterweight (64kg)
• Welterweight (69kg)
• Middleweight (75kg)
• Light heavyweight (81kg)
• Heavyweight (91kg)
• Super heavyweight (more than 91kg)

Boxers must wear boxing gloves conforming to AIBA standards. Gloves weigh 10 ounces and feature a white strip to mark the main hitting area.

Competitors wear either red or blue.

Bouts are conducted in a square ring measuring 6.1 metres inside the ropes on each side. The floor of the ring consists of canvas stretched over a soft underlay, and it extends 45.72 centimetres outside the ropes.

Each side of the ring has four ropes running parallel to it. The lowest one runs 40.66cm above the ground, and the ropes are 30.48cm apart. The corners of the ring are distinguished by colors. The corners occupied by the boxers are coloured red and blue, and the other two corners, called “neutral” corners, are white.