by Kimberly Roos

Created on: June 28, 2009   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

There are several memorable moments in U.S. Olympic boxing history. While most people would put the 1904 Olympics at the top of the list, due to the sheer dominance of the U.S., taking home gold in every weight class and 19 of 21 overall medals, there are very few if any who actually remember this.

Recently there have been many memorable moments, some great and some awful. At the top of the list would have to be the most obvious case of bribery in Olympic history, the 1988 Seoul Olympics, where the 1986 Golden Gloves Champion, Roy Jones Jr., out punched his opponent Park Si-Hun 86 to 32, and was awarded the silver medal! Although Si-Hun knew that he had not truly won and invited Jones Jr. to join him on the gold medal platform, and eventually three judges admitted being wined and dined for their votes, this decision has never been corrected! The 1988 Olympics can be considered memorable for another reason, although overshadowed by the Roy Jones Jr. debacle, Riddick Bowe took home silver, and even though he lost by TKO in the second round, it was to three time heavyweight champion of the world, Lennox Lewis.

Of course there are the obvious wins that everyone considers memorable because the boxers made it so big that even the people who have never watched a match in their lives know their names, for instance, 1960 Gold medalist Cassius Clay, otherwise known as Muhammad Ali, the 1964 champion "Smokin'" Joe Frazier, or the 1968 gold medal holder George Foreman, and of course who can forget the 1992 lightweight champ " The Golden Boy" Oscar De La Hoya. People often overlook the 1984 Featherweight gold medalist, Meldrick Taylor, who annihilated his competition. He won every match 5-0 expect his match against Kenyan opponent, John Wanjau, who lost when the Referee stopped the contest in round 3. An amazing victory for Meldrick who went on to become an IBF junior welterweight champ and should have been awarded the WBC junior welterweight title too, unfortunately the referee stopped the fight with 2 seconds to go, an outrage in the boxing world.

The U.S. has had so many great victories and almost as many terrible losses that it is hard to believe that they were once such a dominating force in the Olympic boxing world. In the recent past America has been an embarrassment, with the exception of gold medalist Andre Ward, and bronze medalist Andre Direll at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and the one bronze medal winner Deontay Wilder in Beijing 2008. Hopefully the U.S. will step up and reclaim the boxing domination that it once possessed.

Learn more about this author, Kimberly Roos.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.