Boxing
Meet the eight Team USA boxers fighting for gold at the 2024 Olympic Games
Published
6 months agoon
By
J. HumzaThe U.S. Olympic boxing team will face the same daunting task it has failed to accomplish at the last four Olympics: winning the men’s gold medal.
Andre Ward is the last American to win Olympic gold, having done so at the 2004 Athens Games. Ward has continued his Hall of Fame career in the pros.
Jahmal Harvey is widely considered the best hope for ending a 20-year Olympic gold medal drought. The 21-year-old featherweight — along with the other four members of the men’s and women’s boxing teams — is in Paris for the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics on Friday.
“It’s really crucial to me to get the morale back in the U.S.,” Harvey told ESPN. “We haven’t won a gold medal in 20 years, so just to do this and bring all that excitement, bring some attention back to U.S. boxing and just get the teenage kids to see you do it and just work harder and believe in themselves that they can do it.”
“And it’s bigger than me, really. Even if I don’t do it, I’m joyful that I’m part of a team where my other teammates can do it and that I was on that path to push them.”
Before the team left for Paris, undisputed two-division champion Claressa Shields visited the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., and gave a motivational speech. Shields knows what to expect: She is the only American boxer to win a gold medal since Ward, and she did it twice (2012 and 2016).
“The best advice I gave them was to get rid of all doubt and believe in yourself 110 percent,” Shields, who competes with Vanessa Joanisse for the heavyweight title in Detroit on Saturday, told ESPN on Wednesday. She also previewed her upcoming biopic, “The Fire Inside,” for the team.
“Believe in your training, believe in your challenging work, believe in your dedication and go out there every fight and put it all on the line,” Shields said. “Fight every fight like it’s a gold medal game. That’s how you win a gold medal.”
Here are eight boxers who will be looking to bring gold to the United States:
Men:
Jahmal Harvey – Featherweight (125 lbs)
Harvey is the first American since 2007 to win gold at the world amateur championships.
His first Olympic match will be July 31 against Brazilian Luiz Gabriel Oliveria. Harvey got into boxing after playing in the same 7-on-7 football league with this year’s No. 1 NFL draft pick Caleb Williams in Maryland. Their youth football coach, Darrell Davis, opened a boxing gym, which led to Harvey trading in his shoulder pads for boxing gloves.
Like three-division champion Terence Crawford, Harvey is an ambidextrous fighter who can box in both the orthodox and left-handed stances.
Joshua Edwards – Super Heavyweight (over 203 pounds)
Edwards, 24, is the first super heavyweight Olympian from Houston since George Foreman, who won a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.
At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, Edwards will often be the smaller man in the middle of the ropes in Paris. In March 2023, he lost a decision to 2020 gold medalist, Uzbek professional boxer Bakhodir Jalolov (one of several professional boxers competing in the Paris Olympics). Edwards rebounded two months later with a decision win over Englishman Delicious Orie, one of the gold-medal favorites.
Edwards won the gold medal at the 2023 Pan American Games. His first Olympic match will be on July 29 against Italian Diego Lenzi. Tyrell Biggs is the last American super heavyweight to win an Olympic gold medal (1984).
Omari Jones – welterweight (156 lbs)
Jones, 21, of Orlando, Fla., is an avid golfer who took up boxing at age 8 after switching from karate. He is also currently enrolled in the business program at Valencia College.
Jones won gold at the 2023 Gee Bee International Tournament and the 2023 Czech Grand Prix. Team USA coach Billy Walsh calls Jones “a very polished and classy boxer.”
Roscoe Hill – Flyweight (112 lbs)
Hill, 29, the oldest member of the eight-man team, began boxing at Foreman’s gym in Houston. Hill’s father was a boxer who trained with Foreman under Hall of Famer Archie Moore.
“I saw these things [Foreman] what he was doing around us in the gym and how he was helping the younger children, Hill told the official website of the Olympic Games“And I thought, ‘I want to do what George Foreman does.’”
Hill won a silver medal at the 2021 AIBA World Championships.
Women:
Jennifer Lozano – Flyweight (110 lbs)
“La Traviesa” is the first female Olympic boxer from Laredo, Texas. She started boxing to develop self-defense against bullying. Lozano, 21, split her formative years between Texas and Mexico.
Walsh called Lozano “a fighter … who has a lot of heart and strength.” She qualified for the Olympics after finishing second at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
Morelle McCane – Welterweight (146 lbs)
McCane, 29, is the first female Olympic boxer from Cleveland. She was an alternate at the 2021 Olympics.
After her first amateur boxing match, McCane’s brother died, causing her to take a break from the ring. She has two National Golden Gloves gold medals.
Jajaira Gonzalez – Lightweight (132 lbs)
After finishing second in the 2016 Olympic qualifiers, Gonzalez, 27, of Montclair, California, took a three-year break from boxing to focus on her mental health. She returned in 2021 and qualified for the Olympics after finishing third in the 2023 Pan American Games.
Gonzalez is the younger sister of professional featherweight boxer Joet Gonzalez, who has fought for the world title three times, most recently in September against Luis Alberto Lopez.
Walsh called Gonzalez “the engine of the team.”
Alyssa Mendoza – Featherweight (125 lbs)
Mendoza, 20, of Caldwell, Idaho, is the youngest member of Team USA. Trained by her father, JR, who runs a boxing gym in Idaho, Mendoza began training at age 12 and has a goal of putting Idaho on the boxing map.
Mendoza is left-handed and has the nickname “The Wrecking Machine.” She has 38 wins in 49 recorded amateur fights.
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Boxing
Ryan Rozicki is waiting for Badou Jack’s consent to mandatory cooperation with the WBC
Published
3 days agoon
January 13, 2025The World Boxing Council (WBC) ordered world cruiserweight champion Badou “The Ripper” Jack (20-1-1, 19 KO) to make a mandatory title defense against Ryan “The Bruiser” Rozicki (20-1), number 1 in the WBC ranking – 1, 19 KOs).
If both camps fail to successfully negotiate an agreement, the WBC will organize a tender on February 4, followed by the Jack vs. Rozicki. Rozicki’s promoter, Three Lions Promotions, immediately sent Team Jacek an offer to promote the fight in Canada last week.
“We are waiting for their counteroffer,” explained promoter Dan Otter of Three Lions Promotions. “Boxing has had a huge resurgence in Canada and Ryan is leading the way. He is one of the most electrifying and hardest-hitting fighters in boxing, definitely in the cruiserweight division. He wants the WBC green belt and ultimately the unification of the division. Ryan will fight Jack anywhere for the belt.”
29-year-old Rozicki, born in Sydney (Nova Scotia) and living in Hamilton (Ontario), fought 22 professional fights against 21 different opponents (twice against Yamil Alberto Peralta), stopping 19 of the 20 opponents he defeated. an eye-opening 95-KO percentage.
Jack, 41, was a 2008 Olympian representing his native Sweden. He is a three-division world champion, as well as the WBC super middleweight and World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight heavyweight title holder. Jack has a record of 5-0-2 (2 KO) in world championship fights.
“We respect Jack and I don’t want to sound disrespectful,” Otter added, “but he’s over 40 years vintage and has been relatively inactive for two years (only one fight). He brings a lot of experience and respect to the ring, but he will fight a newborn defender with a lot of power. Jack is going to struggle and honestly, I don’t think he’ll make it past the first few rounds.”
Ryan Rozicki is on a mission to become the first Canadian cruiserweight world champion.
The next move is Badou Jack’s.
Boxing
Floyd Mayweather’s record is not normal, it can’t happen in 70 years
Published
4 days agoon
January 12, 2025Floyd Mayweather’s incredible 50-0 record is not normal and cannot be repeated in sports for another seventy years.
This is the view of Saudi Arabian president Turki Alalshikh, who wants to adopt the UFC model in which fighters lose many fights during their career.
In a speech as he hosted the Ring Magazine Awards after acquiring the long-running boxing publication from Oscar De La Hoya, Alalshikh was unequivocal in his opinion.
“Now losing some fights in boxing must be normal,” he explained. “All fighters want a career similar to Floyd Mayweather – no losses. This may happen once every 50, 60 or 70 years.
“We need it [to be] like currently in the UFC model, where champions lose and win,” added the matchmaker during the Riyad season.
Mayweather rose through the sport in the tardy 1990s to become one of its youngest superstars. Mayweather’s professional success came after winning a bronze medal at the Olympics after losing to Serafim Todorov.
Winning world titles in five weight classes, Mayweather was untouchable. The Grand Rapids native only came close to defeat a few times. He dominated Manny Pacquiao and overtook Canelo Alvarez and Oscar De La Hoya after heated debates, with decisions that should have been made unanimously.
Towards the end of his career, Mayweather chose to face Andre Berto and Conor McGregor, easily winning and ending his boxing career at the age of 50 without ever going out. Calling himself “the greatest of all time,” Mayweather earned first-ballot Hall of Fame honors and is widely considered one of, if not the greatest defensive fighter of all time.
However, Alalshikh says this type of career needs to end so that fans can get the most out of boxing, as is the case with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Boxing needs to become more attractive, and Alalshikh sees the failures of top stars as a way to keep interest at an all-time high.
In this sport, many boxers enjoy undefeated streaks, the most notable of which is Oleksandr Usyk. The Ukrainian Pound for Pound King is 23-0 and has beaten the best he has to offer in his division and cruiserweight classification.
It remains a mystery how Alalshikh plans to make Usyk suffer while he dominates everyone else. By the time his grand plan goes into action, Usyk will be long gone, and Gervonta Davis, Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney may be more realistic targets.
Boxing
Manny Pacquiao remains the favorite to win the title against Mario Barrios
Published
1 week agoon
January 6, 2025WBN understands that despite alternative options emerging, it is more likely that Manny Pacquiao will face Mario Barrios next.
Bob Santos, coach of WBC welterweight champion Barrios, told World Boxing News that he is currently in contact with Pacquiao’s team. Asked by WBN if he had spoken to Pacquiao or representatives of any other challenger, Santos replied: “Yes, Pacquiao’s promoter, Sean Gibbons.” Pressed on whether Barrios vs Pacquiao might happen next, he added: “It’s challenging to say. We’ll have to see how this plays out.”
WBN contacted Santos after Conor Benn emerged as a potential alternative to Barrios. The British fighter, who recently returned from a suspension following two positive drug tests, is keen to return to competition.
Benn showed favor with the World Boxing Council at the recent WBC Convention, the WBC Evaluation Committee and during an interview with the sanctioning body over the weekend. “The Destroyer” is ranked second in the rankings at 147 pounds, despite less than solid opponents during his time in exile, during which Benn competed twice in the United States while his career in the United Kingdom was in doubt.
As he battled to clear his name and with the British Anti-Doping Authority finding no evidence that Benn had intentionally taken ostarine, the 28-year-old’s career took a pointed nosedive. Despite this, he remains highly rated and at least one step away from fighting for an eliminator or one of the remaining championship titles.
However, Pacquiao remains Barrios’ favorite. Now it’s up to the boxing legend and Hall of Famer who got the first votes to secure his shot. WBN believes a July date – most likely at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas – is the most realistic date for a Nevada swan song.
Pacquiao could extend his record as the oldest welterweight champion by six years if he can secure a huge victory over the 29-year-old world champion. At 46 years antique, such a scenario remains unlikely, but he can never be compared to one of the greatest players of this generation.
Unlike heavier boxers and his training regiment, Pacquiao looks in great shape despite his advanced age. Everything is set for a massive return to the boxing capital of the world, provided Pacquiao and his team can manage his political ambitions, which are expected to run from this month until May. After that time, Pacquiao could find himself in the summer finals and become the all-time champion, regardless of the result.
Barrios is based in the city, where he trained with Santos, and would be the perfect opponent to see out the career of one of the greatest fighters in history.
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