US line of excellence broken in boxing

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Sydney: A long line of boxing excellence -- from Floyd Patterson to Cassius Clay, from Sugar Ray Leonard to Oscar de la Hoya -- ended on Sunday when US fighters failed for the first time in 52 years to win a single Olympic gold.

The United States and its fabled boxing tradition took that painful hit when world featherweight champion Ricardo Rocky Juarez and national light-welterweight champion Ricardo Williams were beaten in Sunday's finals.

Juarez lost a controversial 22-14 decision to Bekzat Sattarkhanov of Kazakhstan. The US team protested at the result because of the "incompetence" of Russian referee Stanislav Kirsanov, who failed to penalise the Kazakh despite repeated warnings for holding.

The referee was subsequently suspended for four years by the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA), but the result was upheld.

"I felt in my heart that I won a gold medal," said Juarez. "I don't look on it as a loss even though it goes in the books as one."

Williams lost 27-20 to Mahamadkadyz Abdullaev of Uzbekistan to complete the first US gold drought since the London Games of 1948.

The haul for US boxing, which has been in steady decline for a decade at the Olympics, consisted of silvers for Juarez and Williams, and bronze for bantamweight Clarence Vinson and light-middleweight Jermain Taylor.

"I'll go down in history for the wrong reasons," said US head coach Tom Mustin. "We had a great training camp. We did a lot to turn things around. Unfortunately, we'll be remembered for this."

Mustin said the officiating in the tournament had worked against many of his fighters, including Juarez, who was often unable to get inside against the taller Sattarkhanov and was tied up when he did manage to get in close.

"Our guys weren't allowed to do their best," said Mustin. "The playing field is not level. It's slanted toward the European countries."

Whatever the complaints, however, the once-mighty US team will go home without a gold.

Future world heavyweight champion Patterson helped the United States erase the taste of 1948 defeat in 1952. Americans have since climbed to the top of the Olympic boxing medals podium at every Olympiad until Sydney.

The streak stretched on from Cassius Clay (1960), the future Muhamad Ali, to Joe Frazier (1964) to George Foreman (1968).

The winning was continued by the likes of Ray Leonard (1976), Pernell Whitaker (1984) and Oscar de la Hoya (1992).

De la Hoya, however, was the lone gold medallist at the Barcelona Games, and in Atlanta light-middleweight David Reid kept the 1996 US team from being shut out from gold with a stunning victory in the last seconds of his bout against Cuban favourite Alfredo Duvergal.

Juarez said he had been cheated out of a chance to win by Sattarkhanov's continual holding and the reluctance of referee Kirsanov to penalise him.

"I blame everything on the referee," said the 20-year-old Juarez, who had won 68 bouts in a row going into Sunday's final. "He should've been disqualified. I did what I could do. but it wasn't good enough. I didn't come here to get the silver."

US team manager Gary Toney insisted Juarez was not given a fair deal."The guy was holding," said Toney. "It's very difficult to score when you're being held."

Williams, 19, had no such complaints after losing to Abdullaev. "I tried to box the first two rounds," said Williams, who trailed 10-5 after the first two rounds. "The last two rounds I came into him, but I was too tired to turn it around."

"He was the better man today."

"That's not the big issue," said world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield. "The bigger issue is did they give their all in the ring. They did and I think they could have won two gold medals."

(c) Reuters Limited.