U.S. Olympic Boxing Trials : Banks Upset by Hopson, a High School Junior

When he’s on, Kelcie Banks is the best amateur boxer in the United States. For a boxing purist, the 6-foot 125-pound stringbean is, most of the time, a symphony of smooth, gliding movement with a quick, crackling right jab.

But Banks is sometimes not on. Thursday night in the semifinals of the Olympic trials tournament, he was off. And so he’s out--for the time being, at least--of the 1988 Olympic picture.

Banks, in keeping with this tournament’s one-major-upset-a-day pace, managed to drop a 3-2 decision to a powerfully built high school junior from St. Louis, Ed Hopson.

Banks is the current world amateur champion featherweight, a gold medalist from the 1987 Pan American Games and a two-time national champion. Hopson was just graduated from the junior program.

This is becoming a pattern for the Houston boxer, whose business card reads: “MR. MIX--World Amateur Champion.” He tends to stumble against young, inexperienced boxers.

He was cruising along--that is, floating-like-a-butterfly-and- stinging-like-a-bee--in the national championships at Colorado Springs last March when he lost a 3-2 decision to another St. Louis High School student, Carl Daniels. And Daniels will now be Hopson’s finals opponent here, because he won a 4-1 decision over Kevin Kelley of Flushing, N.Y., in the other 125-pound semifinal Thursday night.

The boxers are off today. Six championship bouts will be held Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and six more Sunday at 11:30 p.m., both outdoors at the Concord Pavilion.

Here are Saturday’s Olympic trials championship bouts:

106 pounds--Michael Carbajal (Phoenix) vs. Eric Griffin (Houston)

119--Kennedy McKinney (Killeen, Texas) vs. Jemal Hinton (District Heights, Md.)

132--Lyndon Walker (Washington, D.C.) vs. Romallis Ellis (Ellenwood, Ga.)

147--Ron Morgan (Cincinnati) vs. Ken Gould (Rockford, Ill.)

165--Darin Allen (Columbus, Ohio) vs. Anthony Hembrick (Ft. Bragg, N.C.)

201--Ray Mercer (U.S. Army, West Germany) vs. Michael Bent (New York)

Banks, although some ringsiders thought he should have been given the decision, never really did solve his shorter (5-foot 4-inch), stronger opponent. Hopson moved about the ring, leaping in occasionally with scoring body blows, then disappearing.

One ringsider who thought Banks had been robbed was Pat Nappi, head coach of three U.S. Olympic teams.

“Banks won the first two rounds clearly; he won the bout,” he said.

Three judges scored it for Hopson by margins of 59-58, 59-57, and 60-57. Two called it for Banks, 59-58 and 59-57.

Banks did score often enough, it seemed to some, with long right hands.

Minutes later, the jubilant Hopson held court in the Concord Hilton’s kitchen, with about 30 reporters.

Hopson, who turned 17 last week, seemed insulted when someone asked if he felt he deserved the decision.

“I was surprised it was 3-2, I thought I won big,” he said.

Someone asked about some unintentional low blows he’d thrown that weren’t called by referee Bill Waeckerle.

“He’s tall,” Hopson quipped.

For Banks, 23, who must now wait for a “most noteworthy opponent” invitation to the Olympic team boxoffs July 16-17 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, admitted afterward that he’d found Hopson hard to find. And he also had a rip for Waeckerle, the referee, who missed about a half-dozen low-blows thrown by Hopson, as well as ducking his head below Banks’ beltline, another violation.

“The ref just didn’t get serious in there,” Banks said. “He didn’t call the low blows, but his head butts bothered me more than that. But he didn’t warn him for them, either.”

Hopson won the Junior Olympic championship late last year, then qualified for the trials by winning the national Golden Gloves title in May.

One Southern Californian won and another lost Thursday night. Whittier flyweight Chris Carrillo, an aggressive slugger, registered a 5-0 decision over Lionell Odom of Queens, N.Y., and advanced to a Sunday afternoon championship bout against Arthur Johnson of Minneapolis.

Ray McElroy of Long Beach, the national Golden Gloves middleweight champion, lost a 4-1 decision to Roy Jones of Pensacola, Fla.

The bout the sellout crowd of 1,030 in the hotel’s ballroom came to see--the light-heavyweight clash between Northern California rivals Razz Chapin and Bomani Parker, was everything they’d hoped for. Chapin, the harder puncher, turned it into a Pier 6 brawl but came up short. Parker won a 5-0 decision.

Sunday’s super-heavyweight final will be, as expected, between Riddick Bowe of New York and Robert Salters, from Fort Bragg, N.C. Both won easily Wednesday.

Salters stopped outclassed fellow solder Dan Fikes from Fort Campbell, Ky., at 1:59 of the third round with a combination of blows to the head. Fikes went down, rolled over on his side, and referee Stan Hamilton stopped it.