Virtual medal table for olympic boxing

The virtual medal table is as good a statistical guide as any out there.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/medal-tracker.htm#archery_individual_men

If we just look at the predications for the olympics, we should be able to get some good discussions going.

recent research that shows home crowds could help sway judges in

I'll start

Mens Light Fly weight

1 Mongolia Purevdorj Serdamba
2 Russia David Ayrapetyan
3 Ireland Patrick Barnes
3 China Zou Shi Ming
5 Azerbaijan Salman Alizada
6 Korea Shin Jong-Hun
7 Spain Jose Kelvin de la Nieve
8 Armenia Hovhannes Danielyan

Personally I think Paddy Barnes is Gold medal material.

The article you've linked is poorly researched so I wouldn't put much faith in it. In the middleweight division, they predict Alfonso Blanco to finish sixth. He turned pro over a year ago. Same with Demetrius Andrade in the welterweight division. Kenny Egan has been predicted to finish third, yet Joe Ward seems to be Ireland's first choice Light-Heavy.

Getting back to Paddy Barnes, I believe he has come on leaps and bounds since the last Olympics, but lets not forget how decisively he was defeated by Shimming in Beijing. The Mongolian is the World Champion and silver medalist from Beijing, so Barnes' placing of 3rd seems about right for me. Shimming will be thirty one by the next Olympics, so it will be interesting to see whether he has slowed down at all. The World Championships in September should be a good indication of whether Barnes has improved enough to be a gold medal contender in the next Olympics.