U.S. Olympic Team Boxoffs : Maynard, Bowe, Banks Make It the Hard Way

Several days ago, light-heavyweight boxer Andrew Maynard was asked to assess his readiness to achieve a seemingly impossible task at the U.S. Olympic team boxoffs--defeat fellow soldier Al Cole twice, in two days, in order to make the Olympic team.

“Let me put it this way,” Maynard said, “I’m thinking about hanging a sign around my neck that says: ‘I am an animal. Do not feed the animal.’ ”

Maynard put himself into his Mission Impossible predicament by losing a quarterfinal bout to Cole at the Olympic trials tournament last week at Concord, Calif. He was then selected as the 178-pound “most noteworthy opponent” for Cole, who won the trials championship.

Maynard had to beat Cole twice in the past two days in order to make the plane to Seoul, South Korea, and that’s exactly what he did.

On the final day of the boxoffs Sunday at Caesars Palace, Maynard beat Cole on a second consecutive 4-1 decision.

Also Sunday, super-heavyweight Riddick Bowe, featherweight Kelcie Banks and bantamweight Kennedy McKinney completed the Olympic team roster on a card spiced with two more unpopular decisions.

Here is your 1988 United States Olympic boxing team:

106 pounds--Michael Carbajal, Phoenix.

112--Arthur Johnson, Minneapolis.

119--Kennedy McKinney, Killeen, Tex.

125--Kelcie Banks, Houston.

132--Romallis Ellis, Ellenwood, Ga.

139--Todd Foster, Great Falls, Mont.

147--Ken Gould, Rockford, Ill.

156--Roy Jones, Pensacola, Fla.

165--Anthony Hembrick, Ft. Bragg, N.C.

178--Andrew Maynard, Ft. Carson, Colo.

201--Ray Mercer, Ft. Bragg, N.C.

201+--Riddick Bowe, Brooklyn, N.Y.

Maynard, Bowe and Banks were the standouts of the boxoffs, all three making the team in the most difficult manner possible--back-to-back victories over trials champions.

As he did Saturday, Maynard went on the attack Sunday, assaulting the upright, jabbing Cole with a two-fisted attack that backed him up throughout. Cole’s jab worked, but Maynard managed to consistently get inside on him and score repeatedly to the body and head.

In the third round, possibly the most exciting round of the trials and boxoffs, Maynard seemed to have the edge after three minutes of what was frequently toe-to-toe slugging.

The 6-foot Banks had his hands full again with Ed Hopson, who is only 5-4. Hopson, who just turned 17, gained a 3-2 win over the 22-year-old Banks in the championship bout at the trials. On Sunday, as was the case Saturday, the bout turned into a question of whether the leaping, free-swinging Hopson could make it to the end of the bout without being disqualified.

He did, but it was close. Referee Elmo Adolph took one point away from Hopson for slapping, and warned him once more for holding. One more warning and Hopson would have been disqualified.

And there must have been some sighs of relief among USA Amateur Boxing Federation officials when Banks’ 3-2 decision was announced.

Hopson’s rough-house style is not popular at the Olympics, where international judges and referees are even tougher on that sort of thing than are Americans. Hopson did it all Sunday--head butts, holding, hitting with an open hand and ducking below the beltline, a violation.

Banks, on the other hand, is a proven world-class boxer. He’s the current world and Pan American Games champion.

His margin over Hopson Sunday was hair-thin. Three judges called it for him by 59-57, 59-57 and 58-57. Hopson received 60-58 and 58-58 nods (amateur judges can call a bout even, but must designate a winner).

Hopson lost the judges but won most of the 1,875 spectators in Caesars Pavilion. They cheered his aggressive style, and chanted “ED- DIE ! . . . ED- DIE!” during the wait for the decision. When Banks got it, they booed, loudly.

Banks, afterward, indicated the tough part is over and that the Olympics almost seem an easier assignment.

“The hard part about all this is just making the American team,” he said. “I think 80% of us can win gold medals in Seoul.”

In the super-heavyweight decider, the Riddick Bowe his USA/ABF coaches have been waiting to see for years finally showed up. Bowe, Mr. Motormouth of amateur boxing, is an affable jokester, a 6-5, 225-pound giant who sometimes looks like a 20-year-old Muhammad Ali, but also often fights like Lou Costello.

Meet the new Bowe.

In the first minute of his rubber match with the 246-pound Robert Salters, Bowe stung him with about 15 scoring left jabs. Bowe, 228 3/4, had surgery on his right hand in April and has relied more on his left in the Olympic selection process, and it may have turned him into a more effective boxer.

He jabbed Salters to distraction Sunday, and proved a point he was trying to make after Saturday’s win. He rapped the effort of Salters, a 25-year-old soldier who only recently took up boxing.

“He’s been boxing for six months and he’s going to deny me my place on the Olympic team, after I’ve worked four years for it? No way,” Bowe said.

And that’s how it came down. On a 3-2 decision, Bowe got 59-58, 60-57 and 58-58 votes; two saw it for Salters, 59-58, 59-57.

The 4-1 vote for McKinney over Michael Collins was a surprise. Over the first two rounds, Collins staged a masterful exhibition of Olympic-style boxing, jabbing effectively and gliding out of range of the more aggressive McKinney’s counter blows.

But McKinney, facing desperation time in the third round, stung Collins with a one-two at center-ring halfway through the last round, backed him up on the ropes and and nearly floored him with another combination.

It was a big McKinney round, but since Collins won the first two handily, many at ringside were surprised McKinney got a 4-1 decision. Whatever, McKinney called the shot Saturday. He felt he’d been robbed then, when he lost a 4-1 decision to Collins.

“Evidently, they want a show (Sunday), too, so I’ll just have to give them one,” he said.