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Tit for tat, as they say, as the Amercians screwed the South Koreans at the previous Olympics when Jerry Page recieved an undeserved decision over the Korean gold medal favourite, Kim Dong Kil, in the quarter-finals in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
There's other sources that will express that, but for some quick reading, here's a short bit out of a Sports Illustrated article dated, Aug 20th, 1984;
"The South Koreans were particularily incensed when Jerry Page, the U.S. light welterweight who went on to win a gold medal, was given a 4-1 quarterfinal decision over Kim Dong Kil, though it was clear to all in attendance that Kim had fought well enough to win."
That's the fight that really got the American/South Korean political war started in amatuer boxing at the time (the Koreans threatened to leave the '84 boxing competition after that Page decision), but Jerry Page wasn't the only one who benefitted from gaining controversial "hometown" decisions either at those Games, as Frank Tate gained at least one when he was defeated soundly in the opening round of the tournament against Lofti Ayed (Tate's final round bout against Shawn O'Sullivan also reaked of corrupt scoring, considering he recieved a 20-18 round in the third by a few judges after doing not much beyond landing a few jabs from the outside, whereas O' Sullivan, who smacked Tate around in the 2nd round to the tune of two standing eight counts and many repeated blows against the ropes, could only muster a 20-19 round, except on the New Zealnd judges' card which saw him score it friggin ridiculously even 20-20...O'Sullivan likely should have gained the verdict and would have on nuetral ground, but O'Sullivan himself benefited in the semis against Tiozzo), and Henry Tillman recieved a ridiculous decision against Angelo Musone, that was orginally given to Musone, only to see it overturned. Even the American head of the IABF, Col. Don Hull, couldn't believe it, as he called the decision to Tillman a "shocker" in the aftermath.
Tyrell Biggs also benefitted from "hometown" cooking in the finals against Damiani, who forced Biggs out of his normal jab & move game for the most part of the fight, and proceeded to outland Biggs throughout in addition to bloodying his nose and swelling up one of his eyes. The hometown crowd also boo'd the decision given to Biggs quite heavily after that fight, as they did in other ones such as the Tillman/Musone fight.
There were also a couple of other lesser controversies surrounding those Games and the decisions the American team were getting (I think I recall McCrory and Hill getting a disputed decision each), but those were the main ones that came to mind off the top, in an Olympic boxing competition that had many complaints and an overwhelming feeling that the Americans were getting special treatment by the officials.
The Americans may have gotten screwed at the '88 Olympics with Roy (hey, let's not forget that Carbajal's decision over his first round Korean opponent in Seoul wasn't exactly popular either, even if the Korean was fighting in his back yard), but they more than made up for it at the previous Olympics when they basically screwed the rest of the world and gave their guys a few extra gold medals that they didn't deserve in the least.Comment
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Roy Jones and Mayweather were both hard-done at the Olympics. Roy worse.
Makes you wonder how much that motivated them on their way to pound4pound-hood.Comment
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