2012 Olympic boxing

With the olympics not too far around the corner can anyone give any tips on who to look out for? Also how do you think the Olympics will impact on the general view of boxing in this country. I'm hoping it gets more people interested in the sport again.

Roniel Iglesias is supposedly the best amateur on the planet. Surprise surprise he's Cuban. Their is some of his fights on youtube he looks good but it's hard to judge his level of competition in comparison to the pros.

cheers kev, will take a look.

Super HW Anthony Joshua is the British star to keep your eye on. Reached the final of the World Championships and was only beaten by the smallest of margins by the hometown favourite. He also beat the 2008 Olympic Gold medallist (Roberto Cammarelle) along the way.

Has the potential to be boxing's next big thing.

Yeah heard quite a bit about Joshua from Buncey's radio show. He has him on every now and again. Sounds like a good prospect

The Azerbaijanis if the bbc's investigation is anything to go by.

Hahaha! good call manos

J.Benson II wrote:Super HW Anthony Joshua is the British star to keep your eye on. Reached the final of the World Championships and was only beaten by the smallest of margins by the hometown favourite. He also beat the 2008 Olympic Gold medallist (Roberto Cammarelle) along the way.

Has the potential to be boxing's next big thing.

You are right mate this guy is absolute quality people have been saying he can be the next Lewis so he is definately a guy to look out for.

I think Joshua will flop at the Olympics. Far to much pressure on the guy.

The Ukrainian team won four golds at the World Championships, so I'd look out for them. Particularly Lomachenko at Lightweight and Usyk at Heavyweight. Both look to be top notch.

At Light Heavy, De La Cruz the Cuban, looks to be the man to beat. He has a similar style to Roy Jones Junior, which is always pleasant to watch. Other Cubans to watch are Iglesias and Alvarez at Bantam.

Britain's best hope, for me, is Selby at Flyweight. He was beaten at the Worlds Championships by the Russian Aloyan, but it's a deficit he can turn around next year. Conlon from Ireland, also has a great chance, but at 19 and this being his first year at international level, it may come a bit too soon for him.

Selby seems to have improved loads lately. Strong contender for a medal by the looks of it. I missed out on tickets in the first draw but hoping to get some when the resale starts.

What happened to that Ukrainian who won the Val Baker award at the last olympics. To copy waingro, he was quality imo lol.

That was Lomachenko, Azania. He's stepped up to lightweight, as they abolished the featherweight division, and won gold at the recent World Championships.

Does anybody know if Women competitiors are eligible to win the Val Barker Trophy next year?

Why on earth hasn't he turned pro? He was made for the pro game.

He's still only 23. Being a double World and Olympic Champ would certainly add a few zeros to his signing bonus.

6oldenbhoy wrote:He's still only 23. Being a double World and Olympic Champ would certainly add a few zeros to his signing bonus.

Being an olympic champ is enough. If he'd turn pro 4 years ago he could have been major and with a few zeros also. I reckon he would have been fighting in Germany so he certainly would be undefeated. Opponents get docked points for hitting german based fighters.

azania wrote:

6oldenbhoy wrote:He's still only 23. Being a double World and Olympic Champ would certainly add a few zeros to his signing bonus.

Being an olympic champ is enough. If he'd turn pro 4 years ago he could have been major and with a few zeros also. I reckon he would have been fighting in Germany so he certainly would be undefeated. Opponents get docked points for hitting german based fighters.

Turning pro isn't the next step for some, though. Cammarelle was outstanding in Beijing. With him being a Super-Heavy, it would have been near enough guaranteed that he would have become an instant millionaire had he done so. Instead he returned to his day job as a policeman.

Kenny Egan won a Silver, and was offered massive sums to turn pro, but turned them all down and stayed amateur instead.

Did Rigondeaux not turn pro then go back to Cuba and become an amateur again before defecting in 2008 or something like that.

Yeah, him and someone else, possibly Gamboa, defected to Brazil, but were deported back to Cuba.

Any ideas when he's fighting next? Wouldn't mind seeing him in with Donaire.

He was supposed to be fighting on the 30th but the card got cancelled. Not sure what will happen now. Think he's promoted by Don King so the chances of him fighting Donaire are slim. Donaire will only fight someone who can beat him if he's promoted by Bob Arum.

6oldenbhoy wrote:

azania wrote:

6oldenbhoy wrote:He's still only 23. Being a double World and Olympic Champ would certainly add a few zeros to his signing bonus.

Being an olympic champ is enough. If he'd turn pro 4 years ago he could have been major and with a few zeros also. I reckon he would have been fighting in Germany so he certainly would be undefeated. Opponents get docked points for hitting german based fighters.

Turning pro isn't the next step for some, though. Cammarelle was outstanding in Beijing. With him being a Super-Heavy, it would have been near enough guaranteed that he would have become an instant millionaire had he done so. Instead he returned to his day job as a policeman.

Kenny Egan won a Silver, and was offered massive sums to turn pro, but turned them all down and stayed amateur instead.

I know. But if I'm good enough, I'm not going to be punched in the head for free.

My Dad lives two doors down from Luke Campbell.

I hope he does well, but he's pulled out the 'do you know who I am?' line out on a couple of occasions recently.