The end of the fat super-heavyweights

Wednesday night at the Workers Gymnasium provided an interesting chance to see all 16 super-heavyweights in action in one swoop. History tells us that Olympic boxers in the top division go on to be big hitter among the big guys in the professional game - particularly with the downfall of the the Iron Curtain and defections from Cuba. So the chances are, I got to see a future world heavyweight champion in action - or at least a future contender.

My overall impressions were very good, the standard this year seems particularly high. What was noticeable to was the low number of tubby bellies on display. For some years super-heavyweights in the amateur game have got a bit of a bad rap - seen as guys who didn't have to train to make weight and only had to box for eight minutes. But there were some excellent physical specimens on show here: fit, sharp skillful, everything a super-heavyweight isn't supposed to be.

The first bout produced a real cracker which would have been worthy of a final between Vyacheslav Glazkov, of Ukraine, and Robert Alfonso Acea, of Cuba. The Cuban, who came into the team after the defection of Odlanier Solis (who ironically looks a bit tubby now he's professional), looked raw but Glazkov really looked the part.

Tough, aggressive with a good workrate and decent variety of punches, Glazkov would certainly make a high-class pro. The 5-3 scoreline was a reflection of how much the judges missed, rather than how much either of the boxers missed. Alfonso Acea should be a name to remember for London 2012.

Certainly I would expect Glazkov to progress to the semi-finals, as he should have too much for Newfel Ouatah, of Algeria, but the other quarter-final should be a right cracker. That features Zhang Zhilei, a big, chiselled lump of muscle from China against Ruslan Myrsatayev, of Kazakhstan.

Zhang was very impressive, a southpaw who played with Mohamed Amanissi, of Morocco. He won 15-0, although how he didn't win by more is beyond belief. He toyed with his opponents, firing in jabs and hooks, but after stretching into an early lead, the judges seemed to stop scoring.

Myrsatayev needed just 49 seconds to stop Dan Beahan, giving the Australian two counts in a bout so short we didn't really get a chance to see how good Myrsatayev is.

The highlight of the bottom half of the draw was David Price's stunning stoppage of Islam Timurziev. Price showed poise and that he has the power to stop anyone. I would certainly fancy him to win his quarter-final Jaroslav Jaksto, who may get under-rated because he comes from Lithuania. But Jaksto has beaten Price before. The old Price, the Liverpudlian would probably say.

Price will most likely face Roberto Cammarelle in the semi-final, the world champion from Italy who beat him at the European Championships in 2004. While Price has improved since then, so has Cammarelle, who faces Oscar Rivas, of Colombia, in his quarter-final. He looks a much more compact boxer, bossing his space in the centre of the ring and wasting few punches. They should have met in the quarter-finals at the world championships in October, but Price broke his hand winning his previous bout.

If it goes as I expect, Glazkov v Zhang and Price v Cammarelle would make for two exciting semi-finals.

Comments

[Phill Arrowsmith]

As a massive fan of boxing I'm sad to say that I'm really falling out of love with the amateur game. The points system has moved it so far away from real boxing that it's barely boxing at all. Body shots rarely get rewarded, jabs never seem to score (watch the Jeffries fight), inside work is apparently illegal and the whole sport seems very clumsy now. Billy Joe Saunders hit the nail on the head when he described it as getting like fencing. When watching now it's hard not focus on the points that aren't being given and how badly the judges are doing - the commentators even talk as much about the judges as they do the boxers! However badly Roy Jones was cheated, at least the sport he competed in was one where we enjoyed watching the boxers instead of the score board.