Never again a Pinoy

Sports Illustrated’s batting average in choosing Olympic gold medalists in boxing is neither good nor bad.

In 1996, the respected US weekly magazine was on the money with five gold medal picks–lightflyweight Daniel Petrov Bojilov of Bulgaria, bantamweight Istvan Kovacs of Hungary, lightwelterweight Hector Vinent of Cuba, middleweight Ariel Hernandez of Cuba and heavyweight Felix Savon of Cuba.

Six of the publication’s other title picks took either silvers or bronzes and nine went to the finals. That meant 11 of Sports Illustrated’s 12 gold medal picks brought home medals. Only American superheavyweight Lawrence Clay-Bey missed out and failed to step on the dais.

In 2000, the magazine went 5-of-12 once more in gold medal picks. The champions who made the magazine’s soothsayers look good were lightweight Mario Kindelan of Cuba, lightwelterweight Mohammed Abdullaev of Uzbekistan, middleweight Jorge Gutierrez of Cuba, lightheavyweight Aleksandr Lebziak of Russia and heavyweight Savon.

The crystal ball, however, went hazy in forecasting five gold medalists who bombed out. Philippine-born lightflyweight Brian Viloria (wearing the US colors as a naturalized citizen), bantamweight Agasi Agaguloglu of Turkey, welterweight Bulent Ulusoy of Turkey, lightmiddleweight Juan Hernandez of Cuba, and superheayweight Calvin Brock of the US were predicted to bag a gold but finished empty-handed.

Two gold medal picks settled for silvers–flyweight Bulat Jamadilov of Kazakhstan and featherweight Ricardo Juarez of the US.

Sports Illustrated has been unlucky in picking and not picking Filipino medalists in Olympic boxing.

In 1992, the publication ignored Filipino lightflyweight bet Roel Velasco in its pre-Olympic medal forecasts. It picked American Eric Griffin to win the gold in the 106-pound division, Rogelio Marcelo of Cuba to pocket the silver and Puerto Rico’s Nelson Dieppa and South Korea’s Song Cho O to clinch bronzes.

As it turned out, Velasco zoomed to the semifinals after beating Kenya’s James Wanene, India’s Rajendra Prasad and England’s Rowan Williams. His gold medal hopes went up in smoke when he was knocked out by Marcelo in the semis. Marcelo wound up the gold medalist, beating surprise finalist Bojilov, 24-10. Four years later, Bojilov captured the Olympic gold in the same division at the expense of Velasco’s younger brother Mansueto.

Griffin beat Fausto del Rosario Mercedes of the Dominican Republic in the first preliminaries then lost a 6-5 decision to Spain’s Rafael Lozano. Dieppa was gone in the first preliminaries, dropping a 10-7 verdict to Bojilov who also eliminated Song in the next round.

In 1996, Sports Illustrated goofed again in dismissing Onyok Velasco’s chances for a medal. It hit the nail on the head with Bojilov as the gold medal pick. Silver medal choice Nshan Munchyan of Armenia drew a bye in the first preliminaries then was outpointed by Bojilov, 11-5, for an early vacation. The bronze picks Hamid Berhili of Morocco and Albert Guardado of the US also wound up medal-less.

Berhili was ousted by Velasco in the quarterfinals on a 20-10 verdict while Guardado got the pink slip from Oleg Kiryukin of the Ukraine also in the quarterfinals.

Velasco embarrassed Sports Illustrated by defeating Chih Hsiu Tsai of Taiwan, Yosvani Aguilera of Cuba, Berhili and Lozano enroute to the finals against Bojilov.

As if to make up for the oversights on the Velasco brothers, Sports Illustrated boldly predicted Viloria to capture the gold in Sydney. Alas, the Hawaiian Punch exited in the second preliminaries courtesy of an 8-6 decision by eventual gold medalist Brahim Asloum of France.

Sports Illustrated picked lightflyweight Harry Tanamor to win the bronze in Athens. Not counting Viloria, Tañamor was the first Filipino ever chosen by the magazine to take an Olympic medal–in any sport.

Tañamor didn’t make it past the second preliminaries in Athens, dealing another blow on Sports Illustrated’s fearless forecasters.

In Beijing four years from now, I doubt if Sports Illustrated will take a chance on another Filipino fighter. The magazine has been burned repeatedly by Filipinos in Olympic boxing. It ignored the Velasco brothers in 1992 and 1996 and both took home medals. It chose Viloria to hit paydirt in 2000 but wound up with a fat egg. Then came the Tañamor prediction which proved to be another dud.

Maybe, if Sports Illustrated ignores Filipino boxers for Beijing like it did in Barcelona and Atlanta, another Velasco could emerge to end the country’s Olympic medal drought.