U.S. Olympic Boxing Trials : Top Light-Heavyweight Upset on Opening Day

Eight of 12 national champions won on the opening day of the U.S. Olympic boxing team trials tournament Tuesday, and a proud but worried mother and father from Washington were spared the agony of having to watch their two sons fight each other for an Olympic team berth.

On a day spiced with four upsets, the major one came in the light-heavyweight class when the Army’s Andrew Maynard, previously thought of as the United States’ best bet for a gold medal in Seoul, lost a 4-1 decision to another soldier, Alfred Cole, from Ft. Hood, Tex.

In another surprise, welterweight Alton Rice, also from Ft. Hood, was stopped in the first round by Gerry Payne of Washington.

Two more surprises: Flyweight Tony Gonzales, who won a national title at Colorado Springs, Colo., last April, lost a 4-1 decision to Lionell Odom of Queens, N.Y. The fourth national champion to lose was middleweight Jerome James, a police officer from Sioux Falls, S.D., who dropped a 5-0 verdict to Darin Allen of Columbus, Ohio.

A 96-boxer field was reduced to 48 Tuesday. The winners move to the semifinals round tonight at the Concord Hilton.

Maynard’s sudden exit from the tournament was a shocker. The 24-year-old Ft. Carson, Colo., cook, who had won all but one bout in international tournaments dating back to 1985, simply never got on track against the busy Cole.

An upset? Not according to Cole.

“It’s no upset in my mind, I’m 2-1 against him now,” Cole said.

Maynard will likely get another chance to qualify for the Seoul Games. He’ll probably get a “most noteworthy opponent” invitation to the Olympic team boxoffs at Caesars Palace July 16-17, no matter who wins the trials light-heavy championship.

Rice’s loss to Payne, was a doctor’s decision. Rice was dropped to one knee by a quick right hand by Payne, took a standing-eight count by referee Elmo Adolph, who then signaled the boxers to resume boxing.

But at that instant, ringside physician Dr. Mario Ficarola was on his way up the ring steps, and asked to examine Rice. He looked in the boxer’s eyes, then signaled to Adolph that the bout was over.

Later, Ficarola said: “His legs were jelly and he had an abnormal involuntary muscle reaction. I didn’t want him taking another hard blow to the head.”

National champions who won Tuesday were light-flyweight Michael Carbajal, bantamweight Jemal Hinton, featherweight Carl Daniels, lightweight Romallis Ellis, light-welterweight Todd Foster, light-middleweight Frank Liles, heavyweight Ray Mercer and super-heavyweight Robert Salters.

Hinton had perhaps the toughest first day, achieving a paper-thin 3-2 decision over surprisingly tough Sean Fletcher of the Navy. Hinton, who is being recruited by the Sugar Ray Leonard boxing stable, came out cautiously and fought a waiting game . . . until Fletcher began to fade midway through the second round, when Hinton began turning up the heat.

The showdown between super-heavyweights Robert Salters of Ft. Bragg, N.C., and Riddick Bowe of Brooklyn remained on track. Salters won a 5-0 decision over Kermit Fitzpatrick of Highland Park, Mich., and Bowe pinned a 5-0 on Nathaniel Fitch, also of Ft. Bragg.

Salters, who upset Bowe at the nationals in April, should meet Bowe in the finals here Sunday.

The brother-vs.-brother confrontation between James Harris and Mark Johnson didn’t come off because younger brother Johnson ran out of gas midway through the second round in his bout with Eric Griffin and lost a 3-2 decision.

Moments earlier, in the first bout of the tournament--the first of 48 Tuesday--Harris slugged his way to a 5-0 decision over James Davis of the Navy.

The brothers’ father and coach, Ham Johnson, worked Harris’ corner, not his other son’s, a decision he regretted afterward. Pappy Gault, also from Washington and the 1968 Olympic team head coach, worked Johnson’s corner.

The Johnson family--James has a different last name because his mother, Patricia Johnson, wasn’t divorced from her first husband when he was born--sat at ringside, cheering for Mark.

In their hearts, this is one they didn’t want him to win. But they cheered him on, nonetheless.

Mark Johnson, 16, was the tournament’s third youngest boxer. As he began to wear down in the second round, the Harris’ tried to encourage him, cheering loudly. Griffin won the bout decisively, the 3-2 judges’ score reflecting a point referee Rolly Schwartz deducted from Griffin for holding. Yelled Ham Johnson, a former flyweight boxer himself: “What you doing on the ropes? Get off of there! Get on him! Mark, 30 seconds! Suck it up!”

Between the second and third rounds, the boxers’ mother left her seat, walked halfway to her husband, and declared: “Ham! Tell him to take his time and box this guy . . . tell him to stop trying to knock this guy out!”

The cheers grew to groans in round three, as Johnson faded. Then, when the decision was announced, there was silence.

“I wanted them both to win, but I don’t want them to box each other either,” Patricia Johnson said. “I’d have gone to the semifinals, I guess, but I’d have gone outside when they boxed.”

Said James Harris, who now seeks to avenge his brother’s defeat by meeting Griffin in Thursday’s semifinals: “We would have had to box each other, if he’d won,” he said. “The federation (USA Amateur Boxing Federation) people told Dad that if one of us withdrew, we’d be penalized, sort of blackballed in future tournaments.”

That drama over, another brother-brother act unfolded moments later. While Hinton was struggled in a surprisingly tough bout with Navy boxer Sean Fletcher, his older brother, lightweight Bendele Hinton, was losing a 5-0 decision to Olympic team favorite Michael Collins, in the adjoining ring.