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Controversial decision in Roy Jones Jr.'s gold medal bout in 1988

reviewed by jy826

jy826
04/14/2008

Controversial decision in Roy Jones Jr.'s gold medal bout in 1988 5

As someone born in Seoul, I wanted nothing more then 1988 Olympics to go well. I remember watching this match knowing that Roy Jones clearly had won the fight against Park Si Hun. After the bout was over, I thought to myself "There's no way the judges would give the decision to Park," but there had been a lot of crazy things that happened in the boxing venue during the Olympics (the boxing riot between the Korean team coaches and the referee from New Zeland, Anthony Hemberick showing up late for his bout), but I thought no way could the judges give the decision to Park.But I had a funny feeling right before the decision was announced and I remember Marv Albert of NBC saying right before the decision was announced "If Roy Jones Jr. doesn't win, we know there is something definetly wrong in Seoul" When the decision was announced I was absolutely HORRIFIED. I remember seeing Roy Jones Jr. crying into his towel (I felt so bad for him and it hurt to see him crying) and I remember either it was Marv Albert or Dr. Freddy Patcheko (also calling the bout for NBC) screaming "OOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH". I went into my room thinking that the 88 Olympics were completely ruined because of it and Korea was completely disgraced. As it turnsout it didn't COMPLETELY RUIN 88 THE OLYMPICS, but it does go down as perhaps the worst robberies/decisions not just in Olymic history and sports history and it did make Korea look bad. But a lot of you may not know this, but after the decision was announced, a lot of Korean viewers called local Korean TV stations to say that giving the decision to Park was poor sportsmanship. I want to make a correction to what reviewer: "callitdownthe line" wrote in his review. There were no South Korean judges for the Jones-Park bout. Apparently it was South Korean boxing officials who had wined and dined the judges before the Olympics began, this apparently due to the fact that there were 2 Korean boxers who were also robbed of gold medals at the 84 Olympics, although I did not see those bouts,and most likely those bouts weren't as one sided as the Jones-Park fight was. Roy Jones Jr. as mentioned went onto become one of the greatest pound-for-pound boxers ever, and I became a fan of his (how could any boxing fan not?) but I always felt guilty when I saw Roy because of that awful 88 decision. Also in reponse to what reviewer "Canadasucks" said, I don't think the decision to rob Roy Jones Jr. was influenced by race. It was simply just bad judging/corruption involved. And that's simply a part of boxing in the Olympics (Like the two Korean boxers I mentioned above at the 84 Olympics and Floyd Mayweather Jr. was also apparently robbed in his semi-final bout at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics although I did not see the fight ) and at the professional level. I really am thinking about leading a drive to help get Roy Jones a gold medal, like the two Candadian figure skaters at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics) I don't know how much clout I will have, since I am not an Olympic official, or even a US Olympic official, but I will certainly try to get something done.

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magellan commented 697 days ago.
wow, great review.

CanadaSucks commented 696 days ago.
. . .except that race was involved. Korea is a great nation, great place, and great people- but they weren't going to let brother Jones whup a native son and let him win the fight. Race cannot be removed from the issue- but you are correct, there were other factors as well.

Randyman commented 607 days ago.
My friend, that was a great review. I do have to somewhat agree with Canadasucks and say that race or nationalism was responsible for, some of that decision. Regardless, this is still a great review. Good luck with your attempt to get that decision overturned.
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