Sour GrapesAfter two of its boxers lost second-round bouts, the U.S. Coaching staff foolishly cried foulby S.L. Price
He came into Alexander Memorial Coliseum yesterday with all the advantages: 19-year-old legs, a crowd inspiring him with the now-hackneyed chants of U-S-A!, the mere presence of promoter Lou Duva at ringside promising a rich future. When boxing people spoke of U.S. bantamweight Zahir Raheem before this day, they described something special: a Philadelphia boxer with a sparkling pro style and a chance to win gold. The music blared, and he came in dancing. Why not? His opponent was Arnaldo Mesa, a 28-year-old Cuban who had been forced to drop a weight class to fill one of the holes left by recent defections from his country. Mesa had no friends here. Then the fight began. Mesa fired a left. Raheem was all alone.
Raheem (left) was on his heels for much of his bout against Mesa.
photograph by
And what was supposed to be the first quality U.S.-Cuba showdown of Olympic boxing dissolved quickly into a beating. The two men circled for 90 seconds, and then Mesa rolled in with a crushing left hand. Raheem fell. He got to his feet and Mesa came again: a combination, two more jolting lefts to the head. Raheem's legs wobbled as he took a second standing eight count. "I'm O.K.," Raheem insisted. Referee Nikolae Constantinescu disagreed, and with 45 seconds left in the first round he stopped the fight. Raheem, his face a mask of anger and shame, dropped to his knees. Then he lay facedown on the canvas and cried. When Mesa tried to shake his hand, Raheem, sobbing, stalked out of the ring.
Yesterday, that was the American way:
get beat and cry. Nobody complained when U.S. heavyweight Nate Jones stopped Great Britain's Fola Okesola, but when two U.S. boxers lost in the second round, the contingent whined. After Raheem's debacle, U.S. assistant coach Jesse Ravelo cried conspiracy, arguing that the ref had stopped the fight too quickly. Having examined tapes of three previous bouts involving Cubans, Ravelo was convinced they were getting favorable treatment. "They're getting points out of nowhere," he said. "We knew that if there was anything close today, we'd either get disqualified, they would take points away from us or not get points, or they would stop it too soon."
U.S. boxing official Marco Sarfaraz disagreed. "There's no pattern," he said. "We haven't found a pattern yet, and we're all watching."
No doubt there are flaws in the five-judge electronic scoring system—three must score a punch within one second for a point to be awarded. And yes, it's strange that the most blatant botch of these Games involved a Cuban: On Monday featherweight Lorenzo Aragon was knocked down twice, yet his opponent did not receive a point for either blow, and lost.
Still, the conspiracy theory didn't hold after U.S. welterweight Fernando Vargas lost an 8-7 slugfest to Marian Simion of Romania. U.S. coaches insisted Vargas was not awarded points for clean blows. "You ask why our kids turn pro?" said coach Al Mitchell. "This is the reason." Never mind that Vargas disappeared in Round 2 or that Simion also suffered from poor scoring.
USA Boxing president Jerry Dusenberry saw no cause to file a protest. "Vargas has to look at himself in the second round," he said. "He had to play catch-up in the third round. He looked a little awkward, possibly even frustrated, maybe a little tired."
But robbed? Not this time.
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SI Olympic Dailies
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