Punches Haven’t Stopped : Olympic boxing: Poor performance by the U.S. renews debate over use of personal coaches for competitors.

The quadrennial dispute between those who run amateur boxing in the United States and professional boxing managers, trainers and promoters has begun again.

This time, the finger-pointing is over who is responsible for the U.S. Olympic boxing team winning only three medals, the lowest American medal count since the 1956 team won three at Melbourne.

Only East Los Angeles lightweight Oscar De La Hoya won an Olympic championship. Middleweight Chris Byrd earned a silver medal and flyweight Tim Austin a bronze.

Many are blaming U.S. Coach Joe Byrd and assistant coaches Roosevelt Sanders and Osmar Analiz for what some describe as a low-key, laid-back atmosphere on the team.

Several members of the team and their personal coaches--who weren’t permitted to participate in the pre-Olympic training period--blame USA Boxing, the governing body for U.S. amateur boxing.

Typical of the outrage expressed during the tournament’s final days was that of Lou Duva, who trains heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and former lightweight champion Pernell Whitaker. Duva has also trained light-middleweight Raul Marquez of Houston, a member of the Olympic team who was eliminated in the early rounds.

Marquez will turn pro with the Duva organization.

“I’ve been working with Raul for eight years,” Duva said. “Are you going to tell me Joe Byrd can do a better job with him in the Olympics after having him for two months than I can?

“Joe Byrd is a nice guy. But I know how to motivate Raul and he doesn’t. It’s that simple. It’s the USA Boxing people--they’ve just got to let these kids have their own coaches in the Olympics.”

Such disputes are nothing new. In 1984, things got so bad that U.S. Olympic team Coach Pat Nappi threw up his hands midway through the Los Angeles tournament and headed for the airport.

He was waiting for a flight to his Syracuse, N.Y., home when U.S. officials and U.S. welterweight Mark Breland found him and brought him back.

And that was an Olympics in which the United States won nine gold medals. Things could really get ugly this time.

Jim Fox, executive director of USA Boxing, sounded ready for battle on Sunday, the tournament’s last day.

“One thing I can tell you we won’t do is take 12 personal coaches to the Olympic Games,” he said.

“That comes up during every Olympics, and it doesn’t work. We tried it at the 1987 Pan American Games, and it was a complete failure. We had a boxing team of factions, everyone doing their own thing.

“The system we used here is the same one we had in place in 1976 and 1984, when we had our greatest successes.

“But I can also tell you we’re going to take a long look at our Olympic performance when we get home. We’re going to interview all the kids, all the coaches and we’ll make some decisions.

“We’re going to look at every facet of our training period. Was the training period too long? Did we get the kids to Barcelona too early (July 18)? Were the Olympic trials too close to the boxoffs?”

Fox was not satisfied with the U.S. performance.

“When you look at where we were in the world rankings when we got here, and how we did here . . . yes, I’d have to say we’re disappointed.”

A prime example is light-flyweight Eric Griffin, rated No. 1 in the world the past three years, who was eliminated in the preliminary rounds.

Fox noted the team’s bad luck.

“We thought Vernon Forrest (U.S. light-welterweight) would get a medal, but we lost him to illness. (Forrest had a two-day bout with diarrhea and lost a 21-4 decision to Peter Richardson of Great Britain in his first bout.)

“We had questionable decisions in two bouts, and our two big guys were unlucky in the draw.”

He referred to the team’s two Griffins, Eric and Montell.

Light-flyweight Eric Griffin lost to Rafael Lozano during the second round and light-heavy Montell Griffin, after first angering judges and referees by showboating against an outclassed opponent, lost in the quarterfinals to eventual gold medalist Torsten May, 6-4.

U.S. officials and many others believed both Griffins had won close decisions.

Heavyweight Danell Nicholson and super-heavyweight Larry Donald drew eventual Cuban gold medalists Felix Savon and Roberto Balado early, and both lost to them before reaching the medal round.

Jerry Dusenberry, expected to be elected USA Boxing’s president next month, said the issuing of credentials to every Olympic boxer’s coach is unlikely.

“First of all, it isn’t up to us, it’s up to the USOC. If they say we get three coaching credentials, that’s it,” he said.

“We understand that people like Shelly Finkel and the Duvas have business propositions down the road with these kids, and we have no problem with that.

“But while they’re still amateurs, if a kid is preoccupied with other things . . . we think that’s a disservice to the effort we’re trying to make.”

One unhappy personal coach at the end of the tournament was Fred Reilly of Glendale. His son, Pepe, the U.S. welterweight, was eliminated during the second round.

“When I’m with my kid, he wins,” Reilly said.

At the Olympics, Reilly was a mere spectator.

“USA Boxing did nothing for us,” he said. “They didn’t even help us with tickets or lodging. It should be a dream, to see your kid box in the Olympics, but it became a nightmare. I couldn’t even go to the athletes’ village and see my own son.”

The team that dominated the competition, Cuba, was a team in every sense. Every time a Cuban boxed, his teammates sat together in the athletes’ section, standing and cheering throughout. The same was true for the Nigerians, Thais and the the Philippine team.

When an American boxed, his teammates were hard to find.

“When we started losing, everyone seemed to go their separate ways,” De La Hoya said.

But again, Fox blamed “outside interests” on the apparent disunity.

“We’re going to talk about camaraderie when we get back,” he said. “We want to find out if this team ever meshed, and if we decide it did not, we’re going to want to know why. And one thing we want to look at is the kids’ outside interests (pro contracts), pulling them in the opposite direction.”