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FROM MY BOOK, short but funny LOL...
The Olympic process by this time was in full swing and every boxer in the country was preparing for the Golden Gloves and the Western and Eastern Trials that were upcoming. For most boxers getting chosen for the "At-Large spot" was not a realistic possibility so the Regional trials and the Gloves represented the final chances to get in. You don't win here and you either A- Quit, B- Wait until 1992, or C- Turn professional.
Flashback: The mind of someone willing to win at all costs. I used to look at the rankings from the USA Boxing book and as happy as I was to see myself in the #6 slot I would have been even happier to see it up at #1. I remember on more than one occasion looking at those names in front of me and thinking how if a guy was rich and had the financial means he could maybe take it into his own hands to elevate himself to the top spot through, let' say, a case of deductive reasoning. I laughingly pictured reading in "USAToday" every couple days about the sudden demise of one of the countries top 165 pounders (kind of like Tonya Harding looked to make the Olympic team four years later). On Monday you would read about Darin Allen getting a fifty pound weight dropped on his foot one afternoon at the gym while Tuesday saw Guthrie hit by a mail truck as he left his house that morning. Wednesday saw Hembrick suffer an attack from an unknown assailant that left him with a severe case of poison ivy all over his body while Thursday it was reported that Jerome James got ran over in a hit and run by some crazy kid on a motor bike. Lucky for all the other middleweights that I didn't actually have the means necessary to insure elevation to number one and when the time came everybody made it to where they had to go without incident.
The next step in the qualifying process came in May at the National Golden Gloves tournament in Nebraska. Roy Jones was there. Gerald McClellan, too. (Gerald beat Roy in the semi's -great fight- before losing by decision in the finals to Ray McElroy). Top flight boxers from around the entire country were there, guys like "Sugar" Shane Mosley, Eddie Hopson, Thomas Tate, Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson and Sharmba Mitchell. They were good boxers, all highly accomplished, and they were where they belonged that week among their peers.
The Olympic process by this time was in full swing and every boxer in the country was preparing for the Golden Gloves and the Western and Eastern Trials that were upcoming. For most boxers getting chosen for the "At-Large spot" was not a realistic possibility so the Regional trials and the Gloves represented the final chances to get in. You don't win here and you either A- Quit, B- Wait until 1992, or C- Turn professional.
Flashback: The mind of someone willing to win at all costs. I used to look at the rankings from the USA Boxing book and as happy as I was to see myself in the #6 slot I would have been even happier to see it up at #1. I remember on more than one occasion looking at those names in front of me and thinking how if a guy was rich and had the financial means he could maybe take it into his own hands to elevate himself to the top spot through, let' say, a case of deductive reasoning. I laughingly pictured reading in "USAToday" every couple days about the sudden demise of one of the countries top 165 pounders (kind of like Tonya Harding looked to make the Olympic team four years later). On Monday you would read about Darin Allen getting a fifty pound weight dropped on his foot one afternoon at the gym while Tuesday saw Guthrie hit by a mail truck as he left his house that morning. Wednesday saw Hembrick suffer an attack from an unknown assailant that left him with a severe case of poison ivy all over his body while Thursday it was reported that Jerome James got ran over in a hit and run by some crazy kid on a motor bike. Lucky for all the other middleweights that I didn't actually have the means necessary to insure elevation to number one and when the time came everybody made it to where they had to go without incident.
The next step in the qualifying process came in May at the National Golden Gloves tournament in Nebraska. Roy Jones was there. Gerald McClellan, too. (Gerald beat Roy in the semi's -great fight- before losing by decision in the finals to Ray McElroy). Top flight boxers from around the entire country were there, guys like "Sugar" Shane Mosley, Eddie Hopson, Thomas Tate, Mark "Too Sharp" Johnson and Sharmba Mitchell. They were good boxers, all highly accomplished, and they were where they belonged that week among their peers.
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