And then there were eight. Last week, USA Boxing removed Luis Yáñez, its team captain and representative at 105 lbs., from the Olympic Boxing team for disciplinary reasons. The Dallas Morning News reports that the 19-year-old Yáñez repeatedly failed to report to USA Boxing’s Colorado Springs training headquarters and refused to answer his phone for the entire month of June. As a result he is not going to Beijing.
Yáñez has his own side of the story. He says that he was tending to his sister who was in drug rehab and couldn’t be bothered to report his whereabouts to his …read more

On June 20, 1980 Montreal 1976 Olympic gold medalist Sugar Ray Leonard faced the greatest lightweight of all time Roberto Duran thus kicking off the golden age of middleweights, an era chronicled by George Kimball in his forthcoming book Four Kings. Duran outlasted Leonard in the Brawl in Montreal winning a narrow 15-round decision. Leonard, who had turned pro immediately after Games, was now 27-1 and had just lost the WBC welterweight belt.
On June 20, 2008 Athens 2004 Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward faced the serviceable Dominican fighter Jerson Ravelo winning with an 8th round TKO. Ward, …read more