Which Olympic year was your favorite for boxing? For me, it was 1976. I was a youngster at the time (13 years old), but it was the beginnings of my becoming a rabid boxing fan. I had been watching the fights w/my Dad for as long as I could remember, but this was the time that I began to realize I was going to be a fight fan for a long time.
Similar Father-Son Circumstances as Yours, but for REED it was the '84 Olympics (Ironically, REED was Also 13::)...But It WOULD have Been the '80 Olympics, if Not for the Boycott... REED FULLY Embraced that '84 Team, Particularly Pernell Whittaker...Mark Breland was the MARQUEE Guy, but even REED's Novice Eye's Could SEE that Whittaker was BETTER...Strangely Enough, REED Didn't Think Much of Holyfield...Hard Worker, but his Talent DIDN'T Jump Out of the Screen::... Back Then, EVERYTHING was Shown on "Regular" Network Television...The Trials, EVERY Olympic Fight, ALL of it...U DIDN'T Have to Go Out of your Way to FIND a Channel Showing Olympic Boxing...Even the PRO DEBUTS of Whittaker, Breland, Taylor & Holyfield was on Network Television... REED was HOOKED on Boxing from there...Then N '88, REED Saw a Fighter by the Name of Roy Jones, Jr. & the Rest is Nuthugger HISTORY... REED:mj:
Not sure I have a favorite. I was too young to appreciate the '76 Olympics as it happened, but in catching each fight via piecemeal years later, it seemed like the one I'd have most enjoyed. 1984 and 1988, though the latter was soured w/ Roy getting robbed in the finals. I didn't care for the '92 or '96 Olympics. I was kinda bitter over the '92 Games, as I was stationed in Germany and had scheduled 30-day leave to travel to Barcelona before our base shut down and we were forced to relocate stateside :crying:... so that might've had something to do with it. But I really didn't care for anyone on the squad, same w/ the 1996 team. The 2000 Games were there - kinda liked 'em, didn't hate them, but it featured my favorite Olympic fight of all time, when Ricardo Williams Jr. outlasted the Cuban in the semifinals. Absolute war of a fight. Wasn't interested in the 2004 Games at all. It's apparent that style-wise, Roy was to that US squad what prime Michael Jackson is to today's generation of R&B singers, none of them good enough to emulate the original, which leaves the final product resembling little more than a soggy knockoff.
1988 by far. It's what made me start following boxing. RJJ was my favorite fighter but I even followed Lennox Lewis because he won Gold. I vaguely remember the 84 games because I was 5 then. 1992 was a good one too but I mainly remember DLH:doh:
In my opinion that 76 team U.S. team was the best ever. I watched boxing before that, but watching those guys in the olympics and their progress as pros was the fix that got me addicted to this great sport.
