By Cliff Rold

The dedication that it took for the members of Team USA to make it to the 2008 Beijing Games cannot be denied.  Neither can the performance they did not put on once they got there.  With the semi-finals completed, the team’s final Gold Medal hopeful and sole Medalist period, walks away with the Bronze.

In the case of 22-year old Heavyweight Deontay Wilder of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, it is a mark to be proud of.  He picked up gloves only three years ago and saw his dream of the podium peak ended by a vastly more experienced 2007 World Amateur champion in 28-year old Clemente Russo of Italy.  Wilder lost by a considerable margin but is now well positioned for the life-changing moment he sought in Boxing for both he and the two-year old little girl he fights for back home.

He didn’t get much of a chance to fight with Russo, a credit to the Italian who has mastered the sometimes bizarre scoring system so much a source of debate in the last few weeks (and last five Olympic games).  Analyzing the action of the bout isn’t altogether difficult because there wasn’t much action to speak of. 

Through the first round, regardless of the 1-0 score posted for Russo, neither man landed a scoring blow.  Wilder tried his best to force the action in the first minute by popping the long jab he applies from a 6’7 frame, the punch which gave him his best hopes for victory.  Both men traded lots of feints and Russo stayed well on the outside, in no hurry to engage and perfectly ready for available clinches when they got close.  Putting it politely, Russo might be a boxer but he had and will continue to have little design on fighting.  Wilder missed with a nice right hand thirty seconds in; Russo missed a clean right hand thirty seconds later, hitting a ducking Wilder on his left shoulder blade well out the scoring area. 

It’s Olympics 2008; Russo got the point.

Wilder continued to throw wild, lunging shots that strategically forced clinches when he missed and Wilder exhibited early that he would neglect the punch so many of Team USA had against foreign lunges; there were no serious attempts at lead, timed uppercuts.

Round two was equally unexciting, just the way Russo wanted it.  Wilder could be seen to be pushing, less relaxed, already in the bout as he did his best to force exchanges.  Unlike the first round, he started forcing Russo backwards in clinches and working him over with right hands.  Still, there were no scoring blows and not by way of button masher mishaps.  There really just weren’t.  The score remained 1-0.  Considering Russo’s lone point was debatable, viewers had sat through four minute of Boxing without a single clean punch.

To start the third, the tempo picked up with Russo just missing a lead left and an off-balance right hand off the jab just whispering past the chin of Russo for Wilder.  Wilder’s discipline was leaving him and a leaning, missing right-left attempt saw Wilder’s back foot come all the way off the canvas.  An exchange left Wilder again just missing and Russo up 2-0 after landing a perfect counter left and then biking it out back to mid-ring.  The fight returned to grapples, one of which ended with a slinging right from Russo that went without what appeared a rightful score.  Another clinch saw Russo lock in for an almost endearing hug before a referee’s break and with the halfway point of the third passed it was clear that Wilder was fighting the wrong fight…Russo’s fight. 

It was unclear by the same point whether Wilder really could have fought any other.  He was in over his head for the first time at the international level.  The scoreboard deficit worsened at 3-0 off of a Russo right that looked to land on the side of the glove and Wilder’s frustration was letting him sink further.  No longer standing tall with his jab, he was bending at the knees, dropping his head, and throwing punches well over his front foot against the 5’11 Russo, eight inches in height given up in desperation.  A right uppercut landed to Wilder’s armpit for seemingly no score, but seconds later and wild left sideways forearm appeared to be the catalyst for a 4-0 Italian lead.  Russo ended the round walking way with his hands down, chin up, taunting the American. 

Having imposed his style on Wilder, Russo entered the final round with a score that was probably right even if not accurately tallied and did what has been wise in these Games.  He played keep away, determined not to give Wilder’s right or left hand a say in the outcome.  To his credit, fighting the wrong fight or not, Wilder wasn’t quitting.  Inside the final minute, a clinch saw Wilder put everything he had into two clubbing rights to the side of Russo’s head, searching for any avenue to do damage and change the inevitable.  A leveraged right uppercut just missed his elusive target inside before a nasty rabbit punch with the right in the clinch. 

Time was running out and Russo closed the show with thirty seconds to go.  Wilder rushed headlong into the cleanest right hand of the bout, ate another as he reset, and then took the full force of a lead right uppercut to move the dial to 7-0.  A right hand slid off the side of the retreating Russo’s head in the last fifteen seconds to divert the shutout at 7-1 but the fight was over. 

For 2008, Team USA was over as well.

Overall Report Card: Russo A; Wilder B-

The name of this particular aspect of BoxingScene’s lengthy coverage of the Olympics has been titled “The Quest for Gold.”  It was a quest unfulfilled. 

There are other quests though and Wilder’s post-fight interview addressed that.  He noted that his experience was limited and expressed pride in what he accomplished.  He left the Games in defeat to the best in the world, and did so having tried to win.  Wilder was someone to root for in these Olympics and in the end was a man who did his country proud even in ultimate defeat.  That pride was displayed not just in the dignity of Wilder but in a smile from the crowd.

Following his chat with interviewer Jim Gray, Wilder’s mother was shown looking down at her son from the stands, saluting her son with a pride no one else could understand, an American flag waving beside her.  She pumped her fist at him and he raised his fists in a fighters pose back at her, blowing two kisses and giving a thumbs up before making his way back to the locker room. 

It was a reminder, even in the face of America’s fistic disappointments in terms of Gold, of just how precious a Bronze Medal still is. 

It was also a poignant reminder of the humanity beneath the competition which makes the Olympics what it is and always will be.

Wilder and the rest of Team USA now move forward into the morass of the professional arena.  Their prospects will be examined over the weekend along with the results of the Gold Medal rounds here at BoxingScene.

Falling behind on your Olympic boxing intake? Catch up by clicking on the following link for the complete archive of Boxingscene.com’s unmatched Olympic coverage:

BOXINGSCENE.COM 2008 OLYMPIC BOXING CATALOG

Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com