SAD TIME TO BE FORMER AMATEUR BOXER!
The “State” of U.S. Amateur Boxing
San Francisco, CA– If you’re wondering when was the last time the United States did superbly in the Olympics, I would have to say 1976. The Spinks bros., Michael & Leon, Ray Leonard, Howard Davis and Leo Randolph all won Gold medals. I can already hear the peanut gallery decrying that opening sentence and saying that the “1984 team was pretty darn good.” Granted, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, Tyrell Biggs, Henry Tillman, Paul Gonzales, Jerry Page, the late Steve McCrory, Mark Breland, as well as Frank Tate, all scored Gold Medals. BUT, there should be an asterisk next to the 1984 results as Cuba boycotted the games in Los Angeles, this in retribution for President Jimmy Carter refusing to allowing Americans to participate in the 1980 Olympics that were held in Moscow.
CUBAN TEAM DIDN’T COMPETE IN 1988 EITHER
The 1988 team featured Roy Jones who was blatantly ripped off in the match for the Gold against a South Korean who couldn’t tie Jones’ boxing shoes, let alone out box him. But there were three Golds as Kennedy McKinney, Andrew Maynard and Ray Mercer all secured Olympic titles. Sans the Cuban boxing team, boxing in the Olympics just isn’t the same. In London this past week, we saw eight USA boxers fail to win a match, let alone any medals. The lone hope is Errol Spence, who is the lone Yank left, and that’s only because the powers that be reversed a decision that had eliminated Spence in a foul-filled bout with an Indian boxer.
USA BOXING BLEW MILLIONS ON SUITS, PHONE SEX & TRAVEL
While we wish Spence the best of luck when he boxes on Tuesday, the bottom line is that USA Boxing is a miserable failure and has been since headgears became part of the boxer’s equipment in competition in 1984. The boxing that we saw in 1976 had by 1992 been reduced to “fencing with gloves” when Oscar De La Hoya was the lone American to nab Gold. In 1996, David Reid scored a miracle come from behind one-punch KO to win a Gold at 156 lbs. In 2000, if my memory serves me correctly, Rocky Juarez and Ricardo Williams got Silver medals, while Jermain Taylor netted a Bronze.
WARD PRODUCT OF VIRGIL HUNTER & NOT USA BOXING
The lone Gold medalist in 2004 was current World 168 lb. champ Andre Ward. His friend, Andre Dirrell snagged a Bronze. In 2008, Deontay Wilder got the Bronze at over 200 lbs. and is now 24-0, 24 KOs as a professional and the only American prospect to come out of the Beijing games. To those who might want to credit USA Boxing for Andre Ward’s success, try again as Ward was never really trained by anybody outside of “2011 Trainer of The Year” Virgil Hunter.
AUDITS REVEALED MILLIONS WERE MISSING FROM USA BOXING
When an Olympic Committee audit was conducted in the mid 1990s, it was revealed that there were over $6 million in misplaced funds given to USA Boxing, the governing body of amateur boxing in this country. This comes as no shock to me as the late Fran Jones, fell on her sword during a civil trial against USA Boxing. Jones, the Northern California USA Boxing chapter Treasurer and then President Sonny Marson were caught with all four hands in the cookie jar. Jones cried on the stand and acknowledged writing $104,000 in checks to “cash,” none of which she could substantiate or document. These criminal acts led to her being promoted to the #3 slot in USA Boxing’s headquarters in Colorado Springs, CO, and the California Attorney General forcing Marson “out” of amateur boxing all together.
THE SUITS PARTIED WHILE THE PROGRAM FLOUNDERED
All the while, USA Boxing were holding conferences, seminars and the like all over the country, and a select bunch of officials were wined and dined, this while boxing gyms and amateur programs all across the country shut their doors. At one point, Las Vegas MD Dr. Robert Voy was the head of USA Boxing, this was really the time the program began to disintegrate. Once the most successful boxing team in the world, the United States has had but three Olympic boxing champions in the last 20 years, or six Olympiads.
REMOVING GYMS FROM GHETTOS DID NOTHING BUT PUT “AT RISK” YOUTH ON STREET!
I always looked at boxing as a sport that the downtrodden could relate to and succeed in. When I was a kid, the Boy’s Club offered a place to train for free, as did Billy Newman, who ran Herman-Newman’s Gym at 312 Leavenworth in San Francisco. There were some training facilities that USA Boxing would subsidize. But after Fran Jones and her ilk spent USA Boxing money on Florida vacations for her family and phone sex, yes phone sex, as this was revealed when Leonard “Lenny” Albert took USA Boxing to court and Jones had to produce the “cooked” books. It turns out that the aforementioned Sonny Marson was filling his gas tank once a week, as was Jones, her husband and son (who utilized the phone sex lines). In addition, both Marson and Jones, their phone bills were coming out of the Northern California USA Boxing coffers.
PROGRAM WENT BROKE IN SCANDAL AS DID US OLYMPIC BOXING
Some people will say that I’m not allowing Jones, who is now dead, or Dr. Voy to respond. I gave them the chance 15 or so years ago and they couldn’t utter a single syllable in defense of themselves or USA Boxing in general.
FAILURE OF AMATEUR GAME REASON U.S.A. IS POOR IN PRO RANKS
The sole reason the professional boxing game has been taken over by Mexicans, Europeans, and Asians is that the amateur game, a spawning ground for American boxers is in such terrible disarray. I recently wrote about the efforts of Jimmy Ford and his Brisbane, CA gymnasium. But Brisbane, about five miles from Ford’s original gym in the Crocker Amazon neighborhood of San Francisco is not easy to get to. The Straight Forward Boxing Club of San Francisco, run by Ben Bautista, they have an excellent program that is directed towards “high risk” youth. Bautista uses boxing to get kids to focus on themselves, their future, not as boxers, but as human beings. While professionals like IBF 112 lb. female champ Ava Knight and unbeaten jr. welterweight Karim Mayfield are products of the Straight Forward Boxing Club, Bautista’s emphasizes that his pupils, “Break Jaws, Not Laws.”
PARTING SHOT SEES NO GLIMOR OF HOPE
If you were hoping that this story would have a good ending, it doesn’t! While I’m sure there are guys like Jimmy Ford and Ben Bautista operating in other locales around the country, the bottom line is that amateur boxing in the United States is dead, and you can blame people like Sonny Marson, Fran Jones, Dr. Robert Voy and many others for this. Once a successful and worthwhile program, Team USA has failed to win a single male boxing match to this point, the lone exception being Erroll Spence’s loss being reversed by AIBA (Amateur International Boxing Assn..) officials. As an American and former boxer, this makes me want to puke!
Pedro Fernandez