Tag Archives: Olympic

Posted on 12/18/2017

Muhammad Ali Beat Four Olympic Gold Medalists
By: Ken Hissner

At a boxing event in Atlantic City recently top boxing judge Steve Weisfeld asked “who beat four Olympic Gold Medalists?” About 15 minutes later he told me who it was.

In the 1960 Olympic Boxing Trials Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali boxed in the heavyweight division and lost to Percy Price of the Marines. Ali was able to then drop down to Light Heavyweight and made the team and went onto win the Gold Medal in Rome, Italy.

Upon turning professional he converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali. During his career he would go onto defeat four Olympic Gold Medalists starting with 1952 winner Floyd Patterson, 43-4. Ali entered the ring at 21-0. It was November 22nd in 1965. Ali was making his second title defense at the Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. Ali was well ahead when the contest was stopped in the 12th of a 15 round fight. Referee Harry Krause was one of the voting judges in addition to being the referee. He had it 53-46 while Harold Buck had it 54-45 and Bill Stremmell 53-43.

On March 8th 1971 Ali in his third comeback fight took on the world champion who won Gold in 1964 “Smokin” Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden in New York City. This writer had it 7-6-1 going into the 15th and final round when Frazier knocked Ali down to take the decision by scores of 8-6 in rounds from referee Arthur Mercante, 9-6 by Artie Aidala and 11-4 by Bill Recht.

On March 20th 1972 Ali and Patterson had a return match with Ali stopping him in the 7th round on cuts for the North American Boxing Federation title at Madison Square Garden. At the time of stoppage referee and judge Arthur Mercante had it 6-1, Jack Gordon 4-2 and Tony Castellano 3-3.

On January 28th of 1974 Ali had his second fight with Frazier, 30-1, for the NABF title at Madison Square Garden. Referee and judge Tony Perez had it 6-5, Tony Castellano 7-4 and Jack Gordon 8-4.

On October 30th of 1974 Ali would regain the world title for a record third time defeating then champion “Big” George Foreman, 40-0 stopping him in the 8th round in what was called “the Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire, Africa. Scores at the time of stoppage were 4-2-1 by referee and judge Zack Clayton, 3-0-4 Norridine Adalla and 4-1-2 by James Taylor.

On October 1st 1975 Ali and Frazier, 32-2, would have their third fight called “the Thrilla in Manila” where Ali stopped Frazier at the end of the 14th round.

On February 15th 1978 Ali lost his world title to 1976 Olympic Gold Medalists Leon Spinks, 6-0-1, at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. Lou Tabat had it 145-140, Harold Buck 144-141 for Spinks and Art Lurie 143-142 for Ali.
On September 15th 1978 in their rematch Ali re-won the title at the Superdome in New Orleans, LA, before 63,350 in attendance. Lucien Lubert had it 10-4, Ernie Cojoe 10-4 and Herman Preis 11-4.

Posted on 05/02/2017

3 Olympic Boxing Gold Medal Winners in Papp, Stevenson & Savon!
By: Ken Hissner

Hungarian southpaw Laszlo Papp won Olympic Gold Medals in boxing in 1948, 1952 and 1956. When the Communist country of Hungary finally allowed Papp to turn professional in 1957 he was not permitted to box other than in Europe. Boxing promoter Lou Lucchese informed this writer that when he tried matching middleweight champion Joey Giardello with Papp the FBI showed up on his door step in Leesport, PA, questioning his interest in Papp. The fight was never made.

As a professional Papp was 27-0-2 (15), and became the European middleweight champion in 1962 and defended that title six times before being forced into retirement for refusing to coach the Russian boxing team in 1962. He boxed in Germany, Austria, France, Spain and Denmark. He defeated four Americans with the most known being Ralph “Tiger” Jones.Papp passed away in 2003 at the age of 77.His amateur record was 301-12-6 and was inducted into the IBHOF in 2001. In Helsinki, Finland in 1952 he defeated American Spider Webb. In 1956 he defeated future world champion Jose Torres.

Cuban Teofilo Stevenson was the Olympic Gold Medal winner in 1972, 1976 and 1980. Cuba withdrew from the Olympics in 1984. In 1972 he avenged a loss in the 1971 Pan Am Games to American Duane Bobick defeating him in the Olympics. He was awarded the Val Barker Trophy as the best boxer in the Olympic Games. In 1976 he defeated future world champion John Tate. He won World championships in 1974 defeating American Marvin Stinson and in 1978 defeating future world champion Tony Tubbs. In 1982 he lost to future world champion Francesco Damiani.

In the Pan American Games Stevenson in 1975 defeated future world champion Michael Dokes for the title. In 1979 he defeated American Rufus Hadley for the title. In USA-Cuba meetings he defeated Jimmy Clark three times and Tyrell Biggs the 1984 Olympic Gold medalist twice. He defeated American Philipp Brown in 1979. He was 302-22 in the amateurs. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 60.

Cuban Felix Savon won Olympic Gold Medals in 1992, 1996 and 2000. 362-21 was his amateur record. In 1992 he defeated American Danell Nicholson and Nigerian David Izon. In 1996 he defeated Luan Krasniqi. In 2000 he defeated American Michael Bennett and future world champion Russia’s Sultan Ibragimov. He defeated David Tua and future world champions Lamont Brewster and Shannon Briggs. Savon is 49 years-old.

Posted on 07/26/2016

Top Ways to Stream Olympic Boxing Live
By: Chris Brantner

Prior to the 2016 Rio Olympics, Boxing has received plenty of attention. Some of the most talked about portions of the event have been the several rule changes. First of all, professional boxers are now allowed in the Olympics for the first time in 112 years. However, only three boxers decided to sign up for the opportunity. Another is the removal of headgear from the Men’s fights, which will surely make for more exciting fights compared to previous years.

Another big change is the scoring system being changed from a punch-counting system to the traditional 10-point must system used in professional fights. Ultimately, the biggest story in the U.S. is if the one of the six men will end the medal drought after failing to reach the podium in the London Olympics. In total, eight U.S. fighters will be attending the Olympics, which is the smallest team since 1908. Hopefully, it will be quality over quantity for the U.S. team and they can bring home some hardware.

The two main hopefuls for the United States are Men’s Bantamweight fighter Shakur Stevenson and reigning Women’s Middleweight fighter Claressa Shields. Stevenson is coming into the Olympics boasting an impressive 23-0 international record, making him a strong contender in his division. Claressa Shields has already proven herself with a Gold Medal in London and is still considered one of the best female boxers in the world. She is a solid favorite and the fighter to beat in the Middleweight division.
During the boxing competition of the Olympics, all of the TV coverage will be coming from NBC Sports Network. This is traditionally a cable network that is only available for those with a cable subscription. However, the growing trend of cable cutting has led to there being several viable options to watch NBCSN without cable. In fact, there are options to watch just about the entire Olympics without cable, as this Olympic live stream guide displays.

There are a few different services out there offering NBCSN streaming and there is no right choice. Instead, you should pick your service based on what works best for you. Some will be ideal if you just want to watch the boxing matches, but others might be better if you want to expand to watching other Olympic events or just other TV channels without cable.
Here are the top streaming options:

NBC Sports Live Extra: The service offered lets you watch NBC Sports coverage of tons of live sporting events. Since NBCSN is covering the entire Boxing event that means you can stream every fight on NBC Sports Live Extra. The streams are available either from your computer or on iOS and Android devices. Obviously, this will be a great option to watch the Boxing matches online, but the real downside is you need to authenticate a cable subscription to access the service. Realistically, you have two options. You can either ask a friend to borrow their cable login or you can sign up for our next option, PlayStation Vue, which can be used in place of a cable subscription to access NBC Sports Live Extra.

PlayStation Vue: Other than being able to access the NBC Sports app, PlayStation Vue also lets you live stream NBCSN through its own streaming interface. In addition to NBCSN, you can stream more than 50 other channels normally only available through a cable subscription. All of those live streaming channels only costs $29.99 per month. Certain areas get access to local network channels like FOX, NBC, and CBS, but the price bumps up to $39.99 per month.

Some of the notable channels on PlayStation Vue are ESPN, ESPN2, TBS, TNT, FX, and Comedy Central. If you are focusing on watching the Olympics, you can watch on NBCSN, MSNBC, CNBC, Golf Channel, USA, and Bravo. In total, it offers over 1,000 hours of coverage for the entirety of the Olympics.
Sling TV: A service very similar to PlayStation Vue, Sling TV offers tons of live coverage of the Olympics and the boxing event as well. The Sling Blue package costs $25 per month and offers NBCSN streaming, so you can easily watch the fights. In addition, USA and Bravo are included in this package for Olympics coverage.

Some locations have NBC as well on Sling TV, but that is quite limited across the U.S. If you want to include more Olympics coverage, you can add two of the add-on packages for $5 more per month each. The Sports Extra Package will get you Golf Channel and the World News Extra Package adds MSNBC and CNBC for a similar amount of coverage as PlayStation Vue for $35 per month.

Olympics Boxing Schedule by Round (via NBC)

August 6th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Light Flyweight, Lightweight, Light Heavyweight, Heavyweight

August 7th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Lightweight, Welterweight, Light Heavyweight

August 8th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Light Flyweight, Welterweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight

August 9th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Lightweight, Welterweight, Middleweight, Heavyweight

August 10th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Bantamweight, Light Welterweight, Light Heavyweight
Men’s Quarterfinals
Light Flyweight, Heavyweight

August 11th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Bantamweight, Light Welterweight, Welterweight, Light Heavyweight

August 12th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Middleweight
Men’s Quarterfinals
Lightweight
Men’s Semifinals
Light Flyweight
Women’s Preliminary Rounds
Flyweight, Lightweight

August 13th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Flyweight, Super Heavyweight
Men’s Quarterfinals
Welterweight
Men’s Semifinals
Heavyweight

August 14th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Bantamweight, Light Welterweight
Men’s Quarterfinals
Light Heavyweight
Men’s Semifinals
Lightweight
Men’s Finals
Light Flyweight
Women’s Preliminary Rounds
Middleweight

August 15th
Men’s Preliminary Rounds
Flyweight, Middleweight
Men’s Semifinals
Welterweight
Men’s Finals
Heavyweight
Women’s Quarterfinals
Lightweight

August 16th
Men’s Quarterfinals
Bantamweight, Light Welterweight, Super Heavyweight
Men’s Semifinals
Light Heavyweight
Men’s Finals
Lightweight
Women’s Quarterfinals
Flyweight

August 17th
Men’s Quarterfinals
Flyweight
Men’s Finals
Welterweight
Women’s Quarterfinals
Middleweight
Women’s Semifinals
Lightweight

August 18th
Men’s Semifinals
Bantamweight, Middleweight
Men’s Finals
Light Heavyweight
Women’s Semifinals
Flyweight

August 19th
Men’s Semifinals
Flyweight, Light Welterweight, Super Heavyweight
Women’s Semifinals
Middleweight
Women’s Finals
Lightweight

August 20th
Men’s Finals
Bantamweight, Middleweight
Women’s Finals
Flyweight

August 21st
Men’s Finals
Flyweight, Light Welterweight, Super Heavyweight
Women’s Finals
Middleweight

As you can tell from the schedule there will be a ton of boxing matches to watch during the Olympics. It is a fifteen day gap before the first Men’s fight in the Preliminary Rounds to the last fight in the Finals Round and all of the fights will be scattered throughout the days. Having access to NBCSN will be a huge asset to anyone who does not cable and thankfully the above options are all top quality ways to watch online.
Leave any comments or questions below!