By Edward Chaykovsky

Former four division world champion Roy Jones Jr. won Olympic silver in the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Jones lost a highly controversial decision in the gold medal fight.

Since that time period, the United States Olympians have not exactly banked in the medals. While America's dominance in the amateur and pro ranks has been declining, the rise of Eastern European fighters has been evident.

Fighters from Eastern European countries have been racking up medals and winning many of the major amateur tournaments in recent years. A lot of those fighters are now holding titles and enjoying success in the pro ranks.

Jones himself has jumped on the bandwagon. The future Hall of Famer has obtained citizenship in Russia and fought several times in Eastern Europe.

He admits that American fighters are just not as good anymore as the rest of the world. The biggest part of the problem, according to Jones, is the lack of support for young fighters in the United States. In Eastern Europe, Jones explains that amateur fighters are getting groomed from a very early age and there are numerous facilities to provide support for these boxers.

"We are now just not as good as the other countries," said Jones to the Pensacola Journal. "The Eastern countries, they started at 10 years old with kids and they have schools for boxing."

"We have schools for basketball, other sports, but we don't have boxing schools. So how are you going to keep up when those kids (in Eastern Europe) are going to school every day boxing from age 10 until Olympic time? You're not going to keep up. And so eventually (these other fighters) are going to surpass you. Their boxing teams as a whole are better than ours. Why? Because everybody has run over there teaching an amateur program."