Boxing: Taylor's gain is hero Barnes' pain
Thursday August 20 2009
THE decision to introduce women's boxing into the London Olympics of 2012 is a landmark one, a knockout victory for the ladies.
For Ireland's Golden Girl Katie Taylor, the reigning world and European champion, it has to be all her Christmas presents rolled into one.
If she maintains her brilliant form, stays free from injury, and gets through the qualifiers, she will surely enter the ring as favourite to strike gold after three bouts. If qualified, she would be straight into the quarter-finals.
But has the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made a huge blunder in deciding to drop one of the men's divisions, almost certainly lightflyweight, to get inside the overall quota of 286, men and women?
Would it not have been fairer and more sensible to pare down the entries in the 11 weights and leave the lightest weight alone? As it stands, and as far as Ireland is concerned, the decision leaves Beijing Olympics hero Paddy Barnes with a serious problem.
The Belfast lightflyweight brought home a bronze medal, but if the division is scrapped, he will have to put on the extra weight and move up to flyweight, a class he is not happy in.
"Let me say I'm delighted for Katie and delighted for all women boxers," he said. "But what annoys me is the cost that us lightflys are having to pay for their acceptance. It's terrible the way we have to be penalised for this to happen. Maybe they are just picking on the little guys."
High Performance chief coach Billy Walsh said: "If lightflyweight is the one to miss out, it would be a tragedy for us because we have a high-class performer in Paddy Barnes. But we have to recognise that women's boxing is part of our sport now."
It's not the first time the IOC have interfered with the weights. They dropped the lightmiddleweight division after the 2000 Melbourne Olympics, amid protests worldwide. Their reason? To allow in women wrestlers!
It is to be hoped too that by the time 2012 comes around that the world controlling body AIBA will come to grips with the old problems of refereeing and judging. Even under new Olympic president Ching-kuo Wu of Taiwan, bad decisions are still part and parcel of Olympic boxing.
"It's still a major problem," said Daniel Herbert, one of Britain's leading boxing writers. "Selecting referees and judges according to which part of the world they are from, rather than their competence, means standards of refereeing and scoring are way short of what they should be."
"Many nations left China feeling very much shortchanged, Ireland among them. Kenneth Egan's greatest misfortune was to box a Chinese, Zhang Xiaoping, in the lightheavyweight final. You can't say it was robbery, but the 11-7 verdict to Zhang could well have been reversed in any other country.
SHORT JABS
IT'S showdown time for Andy Lee tomorrow when he ducks between the ropes to meet Anthony Schuler, a 32-year-old southpaw from Indianapolis, in Hammond, Indiana.
Schuler comes in as a late sub for Mexico's Jose Humberto Corral who sustained an injury in training. The Limerick middleweight (25) must win this scheduled 10-rounder in impressive fashion if he is to be taken seriously as a potential world-title contender.
"Andy has been working hard in the gym over the last few weeks and he's looking good," said his manager and coach Emanuel Steward. "We don't know an awful lot about Schuler but that's no problem. Andy has the skill and the accurate punching to do the job."
Southpaw Lee, who is based in Detroit, has won 18 of his 19 fights, 13 either by count-outs or stoppages.
- Thomas Myler
