U.S.-Soviet Boxing Matches : Americans Win, 5-4, on Low Blow

It wasn’t pretty, but in view of the United States’ track record against Soviet boxing teams, the Americans took the blue ribbon and ran with it Saturday.

In only the second team victory against the Soviet Union in an all-weights boxing dual meet since 1979, a U.S. team registered a 5-4 win over the Soviets at Harrah’s Tahoe.

The Americans lost the last two bouts on the card but already had secured victory when U.S. heavyweight Charlton Hollis--this is the not-pretty part--crashed to the deck in the second round, clutching his groin and howling in pain from a low blow.

Hollis appeared to be losing at the time, and although Soviet Coach Artem Lavrov didn’t deny the punch thrown by his boxer, Evgeni Sudakov, was low, he indicated he didn’t think Hollis was as badly injured as he let on.

“The American boxer could have continued,” he said, through an interpreter.

American referee Marco Sarfaraz from Marina del Rey studied Hollis’ writhing in the boxer’s corner and then awarded him a disqualification win.

“There’s no way,” said U.S. Coach Larry Ramirez of Fontana, when asked if Hollis could have continued. Many ringsiders felt Hollis was going for an Oscar. “I tried to move his (protective) cup around, and he wouldn’t let me touch it. The guy was really hurting.”

Ramirez’ team won four of the first six bouts, making Hollis’ victory the decider. After the Hollis bout, American heavyweight Gary Butler and super-heavyweight Robert Salters both lost decisions.

Saturday’s show was originally scheduled as a USA-USSR all-heavyweight and all-super-heavyweight show. But the format was changed when the Soviets couldn’t find enough big guys to bring, so there were six bouts in the welterweight, light-middleweight, middleweight, and light-heavyweight divisions.

The Soviets, since 1969, have beaten the Americans 18 times in 22 dual mixed-weight meets, and 12 of 14 times in heavyweight competitions.

“This was a strong Soviet team, our kids won and we’re all pretty excited,” Ramirez said. “Our boxers were together for two-and-a-half weeks in Colorado Springs (training at the USA Amateur Boxing Federation’s training camp) and some of those Russian boxers have been together since the 1960s.”

Is this any kind of barometer for the Seoul Olympics? Not necessarily. All of the American boxers Saturday except welterweight Kenneth Gould have qualified for the July 5-10 U.S. Olympic trials at Concord, Calif. And Gould, who is a world champion, is the favorite in his class.

Only three of the U.S. boxers Saturday could be said to be favored at this point to make the Olympic team--Gould, light-middleweight Frank Liles and super-heavyweight Salters.

Gould won an uninspired 4-1 decision over Alexander Ostrovsky Saturday. Gould, busy as usual, never solved the straight-up Ostrovsky’s style, typical of all East-European boxers. Four months before the Olympics, that’s not a favorable situation for him. Saturday, he never got around the Soviet boxer’s left jab.

Liles, the national 156-pound champion, in the opening bout, pinned a 4-1 decision win on Evgeni Zaitsev.

Bomani Parker, a light-heavyweight boxing for the first time since April shoulder surgery, followed Gould’s win with a 5-0 verdict over Andrei Karavaev. Next was Alfred Cole’s 4-1 win over Renat Trishev, and then Hollis’ win.

Salters, apparently a big man in a hurry, was impressive against 28-year-old Soviet veteran Viacheslav Yakovlev. Salters, 25, has been boxing for only 18 months and upset Brooklyn boxer Riddick Bowe at the national championship in March.

He weighed 230 for the nationals, but came in at 246 Saturday. Nevertheless, at 6-4, he still looked trim. And against Yakovlev, a third place finisher at the 1986 World Championships, he seemed impressively conditioned.

In the second round, Salters nearly put Yakovlev down. He stung him on the ropes with a good jab, then followed with a powerful right hand. He charged in to deliver more, but the referee, Sarfaraz, pushed him away to give the Soviet a standing-eight count.

“I will be on the Olympic team,” Salters said, after his 4-1 loss. “And I hope they (the Soviets) bring this guy again. I should have thrown more jabs today, set up my right more. It was close, and I kind of think that if the judges hadn’t known he’d been around for so long, they might have given it to me.”