Professionals who have tried to qualify so far have gotten their asses kicked so far. In the last fight a 16-0 pro got knocked out in the first round, so maybe matchibg amateurs with pros is dangerous after all. Hassan N'Dam and a Thai lightweight world champion are the best-known pros that are trying to qualify
This was all a ploy set up by the Cuban government (with help from Vladimir Puto.) They were trying to get as many Cuban pros as they could to get on one team plane, then highjack it and land it back in Cuba.
I can't say I'm overly suprised. Most of the top amateurs are now used to fighting without headgear and have been contesting qualifying events with much better opponents than your average 15-0 professional. Frankly, I've argued for a while that the traditional route of 'bringing on' promising ammys in to the pro ranks by matching them with a dozen stiffs is probably a waste of everyone's time. MTF
Olympic boxing looks cool again, diffetence to pro game is minimal. Even so, Hassan N'Dam got eliminated in his first round
:: "Vladimir Puto" :: I enjoyed what I saw yesterday, the Spanish Light-Fly looks good. Englands flyweight looked good too,when he kept moving, too easy to hit when he didn't. That Italian 16-0 lightweight looked shit. No body form, no head positioning, etc. Deserved to lose. EDIT: Got confused. TOmmassone, the Italian with the pro record, beat his Mexican opponent 3-0.
Tought the spamish light fly looked pretty poor. More flash than substance. Olympic boxing is indeed fun again. Very similar to the pro
Looks good but they don't like to show it on TV unless I'm missing the channel. I guess US vs Senegal in woman's basketball is the real ratings monster.
Calmate, Don EyePuss. if you ever uttered such tripe to the face of Claressa Shields you would take a dirt nap you dirty twat
Did anybody see that Russian Middleweight who gave up his place at MW to represent the Russkies at Lt-Hvy...he won that damned fight in my opinion, against a much larger Venezuelan opponent.
Yafai and some Cuban in a good scrap on BBC here. The Cuban is just better, and is ahead, but both are showing plenty of balls. MTF
Afaict, they aren't showing jack shit of boxing on NBC and its other channels, not even the Spanish ones. I think maybe 7 fights through the first 2 rounds so far? 3 USA fights, an Ireland fight, amnat that I missed, and an Argentina vs Spain?
Just watched Ireland's David Joyce lose easily to Albert Selimov, who has been around a long time, has a win over Lomachenko
American Shakur Stevensson was impressive at featherweight, securing a bronze. He reminds me of young Pernell
[h=1]Boxing Judges and Refs Removed After Suspicious Results[/h] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/s...emoved-after-a-review.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
Stevenson lost a split decision to a Cuban reigning Olympic champion in the finals. Stevenson is merely 19-year-old. He is not yet nearly as good as prime Pernell of course and likely never will, but he is definitely promising.
Is that the only successful Cuban boxer who is Hispanic looking and not Hispanic Black looking? Nice to have some decent American success in the Olympics. It's been a while.