Leading up the the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics….and prior to a “peanut farming US President” decision to dash the hopes, dreams and sacrifices of so many US athletes by boycotting the Games due to the USSR’s presence in Afgahnistan….I mean after all….isn’t the US sending more troops into Afgahnistan in 2017… some 37 years later….but anyway….US amatuer boxers like the ones featured in this video herewith were robbed of their hard-fought opportunity to represent their country at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.
This competition between the USA vs Cuba amatuer boxing teams at Madison Square Garden in NYC was the 3rd time these two team had faced off against each other during 1978 and 1979 while leading up to the Olympics….by featuring the following matches…..with welterweights USA Clint Jackson vs Andres Aldams….where the Cuban won with a 1st round TKO….which was followed by the light middleweight bout between Cuba Luis Martinez vs Jeffrey “Showtime” Stodemire….whereby the American tooka surprising decision over the Cuban world champion. The next match was between light flyweights USA Richard Sandoval vs Cuba Hector Ramierz….as the Cuban took a split-decision from the American hopeful….as this match was followed by the flyweight bout between USA Jerome Coffee vs Cuba Jorge Hernandez….with the Americans losing another close split decision.
The next bout was an outstanding bantamweight match between USA Jackie Beard vs Adolfo Herta….as the Cuban narrowly squeaked out a split-decision victory over the American…..as this fight was followed USA feathereweight Benard Taylor winning a unanimous decision over existing world champion Angel Herrera of Cuba.
The next three bouts covered in this competition involved US fighters who went on to have really decent professional careers including Johnny Bumphus who won the world light welterweight title….Donald Curry, who won the world welterweight title….and Alex Ramos who would win the USBA middleweight title…..as in this USA vs Cuba competition, Bumphus lost a close split decision in the lightweight bout to Armando Martinez….while Curry would lose his light welterweight bout to Jose Aquilar…..and Ramos would lose a close split-decision middleweight bout to Jose Gomez. The final bout of this competition featured Cuban light heavyweight world champion Sixto Soria winning by TKO in round 2 over USA Rick Jester.
Although not seen in this video herewith, the final bout in this the 3rd and final competition between the USA vs Cuba in amateur boxing….would feature the most famous amateur heavyweight boxer of all time in Cuba’s Teofilio Stevenson vs USA Jimmy Clark….as Clark would give the great Cuban heavyweight a run for his money.
This ABC Wide World of Sports telecast is hosted by the legendary sports broadcaster Chris Schenkel…. so, when you couple that with the outstanding amateur boxing seen herewith…..that makes this video MUST SEE TV for any and all fans of amateur boxing.
