The Neutral Corner

Former U.S. Olympian and reigning World Amateur Champion Demetrius Andrade has signed a promotional contract with Joe DeGuardia's Star Boxing and Art Pelullo's Banner Promotions. DeGuardia, a former Golden Gloves champ, is from the Bronx.

The 20- year-old Andrade, from Providence, Rhode Island, lost a controversial decision in the quarterfinals in Beijing. In the amateur ranks, Andrade was a two-time Golden Gloves Champion, and two-time National Champion, he won the silver medal at the 2007 Pan American Games and he won the 2007 World Championship, the first American boxer to do so since 1999.

"Demetrius was hands down the best fighter at the Olympics and best amateur prospect I have seen in a long time. I have been following Demetrius for a longtime and we are very excited he has chosen us to be an integral part of his promotional team to lead him in his professional career. Demetrius is a big strong kid with very fast hands and devastating power. He reminds me of a cross between Sugar Ray Leonard and Tommy Hearns with his lean body frame, quick hands and one punch knockout power" said DeGuardia.

Andrade fights at welterweight.

-- CASSIDY

I come not to bury Cuban boxers, but to praise them.

For the first time since the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, the Cuban boxing team will go home without a gold medal in boxing. Aside from boycotting the 1984 and 1988 Games, Cuba has dominated the boxing competition.

It was difficult to call Cuba the boxing favorite before the Games in Beijing because it lost five gold medalists from its 2004 team. Three of them – Yuriorkis Gamboa, Odlanier Solis and Yan Barthelemy defected, another, Guillermo Rigondeaux, was banned after a failed attempt at defection, and the great Mario Kindelain had retired.

So, not only did Cuba send a team to Beijing without a defending gold medalist, it sent a team without a single round of Olympic experience. Also, for the first time, they qualified boxers in 10 weight classes, not the full compliment of 11 weight classes. But then, suddenly, a week into the competition, those who doubted the mighty Cuban boxing machine were looking silly.

In the history of Olympic boxing, there have only been three fighters who won three boxing gold medals. Two of them were Cubans Teofilo Stevenson and Felix Savon (the third was Hungary's Laszlo Papp). Cuba is the country that gave the boxing world Kid Gavilan, Luis Rodriguez and Joel Casamayor. How could we doubt them.

Cuba sent eight fighters into the semifinals, guaranteeing them at the very least, eight bronze medals. They ended up with four bronze and four silver medals.

Two of the favorites to capture gold were middleweight Emilio Correa and lightweight Yordanis Ugás. Ugás won gold at the 2005 world championships and the 2007 Pan Am Games. Correa also captured gold at the 2007 Pan Am Games. Correa is the son of Emilio Correa Sr., a welterweight who was a mainstay on the Cuban national team from 1966 to 1979. Correa Sr. won gold at the 1971 Pan Am Games, 1972 Olympics and 1974 world championships.

At Beijing, Correa wound up with a silver medal while Ugas won bronze.

Here is what happened. Cuba got a taste of its own medicine. For years, American amateur fighters argued that they were really fighting pro fighters when they met the Cubans. Fighters in Cuba are not allowed to turn pro and therefore remain in the amateur ranks for years. Thus, an 18-year-old American kid might face a 28-year-old Cuban for the gold medal. Seems a bit unfair, but that’s what happened to several Cuban fighters in Beijing. They went up against far more experienced fighters and lost.

Yes, we all remember the great Jerry Seinfeld comedy routine when he says the gold medalist is forever “the greatest guy in the world,” and the silver medalist, “never heard of him.”

But consider this. We send a team to Beijing without a single round of previous Olympic experience (as we always do because our kids turn pro). But if before the Games, you were told we would come home with four silvers and four boxing bronze medals, you would feel pretty good about that, right?

So why shouldn’t the Cubans? This was team that Fidel Castro refused to allow to the 2007 World Championships for fear of more defections. This was a team with very little international experience. It’s a far cry from ’92 when they won seven gold medals, but eight medals in 11 weight classes isn’t bad either.

We only came home with a bronze medal from heavyweight Deontay Wilder.

-- CASSIDY

Which is the greatest Olympic boxing team in the history of the Games?

1968: USSR, six medals, three gold

1976: USA, seven medals, five gold, including Sugar Ray Leonard, Howard Davis, Michael Spinks and Leon Spinks

1980: CUBA, 10 medals, six gold, including Teofilio Stevenon's third and Angel Herrera's second. Note these games were boycotted by the USA.

1984: USA, 11 medals, nine gold, one silver, one bronze, including Meldrick Taylor, Mark Breland, Pernell Whitaker, Tyrell Biggs and Evander Holyfield (who won bronze). Note: these games were boycotted by Cuba and USSR.

1992: CUBA, 9 medals, seven gold and two silver, including Felix Savon and Joel Casamayor

2004: CUBA, 8 medals, five gold, two silver and one bronze, including Yuriorkis Gamboa, Yan Barthelemy, Odlanier Solis and the second won by Mario Kindelain.

-- CASSIDY

Sad news out of Las Vegas.

Roshii Wells, who won a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics, was shot and killed in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 11, 2008.

Wells lost in the semifinals to Cuban great Ariel Hernandez and turned pro in 1997. He twice challenged for the WBA junior middleweight title, losing both bouts to Alejandro Garcia. He retired from pro boxing in 2005 with an 18-2-2. He also appeared on the third season of "The Contender" on ESPN.

Wells, who was training at Johnny Tocco's Gym, hoping to make a comeback, was 31 when he was killed.

To read more about Roshii Wells, click this story from Las Vegas Review Journal.

-- CASSIDY

Sadam Ali, the 20-year-old lightweight from Brooklyn, lost in his first-round match at the Beijing Olympics. He was decisioned by Romania's Georgian Popescu, 20-5.

Ali, from Canarsie, is a two-time National Golden Gloves champion. The first round against Popescu was close, with the Romanian edging Ali, 3-2. But he outscored Ali 17-3 over the final three rounds, including 4-0 in the last round.

-- CASSIDY

That's what you are wondering, right? What exactly does U.S. Olympic swimmer Dara Torres have to do with boxnig. Nothing, actually.

You would think that a boxing guy would be comfortably seated on the Torres bandwagon. After all, Archie Moore fought competitively until the age of 48 and George Foreman won the heavyweight title at the age of 45. So why not. At 41, Torres is swimming faster than ever and is competing in a record fifth Olympic Games. It's a fantastic story.

So too was Mark McGwire in 1998. I was comfortably seated on the McGwire bandwagon and even brought family members out to Shea just to watch him take batting practice. We all know how that story ends. So, this time, I'll give my seat to someone else.

Let me write this in caps: DARA TORRES HAS NOT FAILED A DRUG TEST.

To our knowledge, neither did Mark McGwire in 1998 or Marion Jones in 2000.

In fact, prior to the Olympics, anticipating the scrutiny, Torres asked for stiffer drug tests.

Here's my problem. We've been disappointed too many times before. For the last 100 years, people were simply not better athletes at 41 than they were at 25. Not unless the caliber of opposition has drastically changed or not until baseball players started juicing.

When Foreman won the title at the age of 45, he knocked out Michael Moorer. Now, no one would confuse Moorer with Hall-of-Famer Joe Frazier, the man Foreman knocked out in 1973. The caliber of opposition changed drastically.

Let's make an analogy with the right gender. In 1997, Nancy Lieberman, age 38 and perhaps the greatest female basketball player of all time, played for the Mercury in the inaugural season of the WNBA. The one they called "Lady Magic" was a role player. She was a part-timer on the court struggling against women who could not have stopped her 10 years earlier. I saw her play against the Liberty that season and the game had completely passed her by.

But forget about measuring yourself against other athletes. In Torres' case, the competition is the clock. And that doesn't change. 24.38 is 24.38 seconds now, 20 years ago and 100 years ago. 24.38 was the American record Torres set in qualifying for the 50 meter freestyle in Beijing.

Maybe I'm wrong. It won't be the first time, nor will it be the last. Maybe Torres is that special kind of athlete who can defy Mother Nature and all the rules of athletics and physiology. I hope she is. We need that kind of story.

But consider one more athlete: Mark Spitz. Even Michael Phelps might concede that Spitz is the greatest American swimmer in history. He won seven gold medals at the 1972 Olympics. Here is where it gets interesting. In 1992, at the age of 41, Spitz attempted to make a comeback for the Barcelona Olympics. He failed to make the U.S. Olympic team, missing the qualifying time by two seconds.

-- CASSIDY

The Associated Press is reporting from Beijing that U.S. bantamweight Gary Russell Jr. will miss the Olympics after collapsing while trying to make weight. Russell -- at 119 pounds -- was considered by many to be a medal contender.

The story read in part: U.S. coach Dan Campbell said Russell, a two-time national champion, was found unconscious and severely dehydrated early Friday morning by his roommate, light flyweight Luis Yanez.

Medical personnel at the athletes' village rehydrated Russell, but he wasn't healthy enough to participate in Friday's weigh-in.

"We became alarmed a couple of days ago when we saw he wasn't sweating like he should," Campbell said after Friday's draw. "When these kids try to make weight, sometimes they cut corners. What we believe is he did not increase his fluid intake after we told him to."

Russell hadn't competed at 119 pounds since the world championships in Chicago last fall. He has fought at 125 pounds or more in every test event and dual meet since, but Campbell and Russell both thought he would have no trouble making weight.

The 20-year-old Russell, from the Washington D.C. area, is 5-3 and has consistently fought between 119 and 125 pounds. In 2005, he won the National Golden Gloves and the U.S. National Boxing Championships. It has been reported that the 20-year-old southpaw has won more than 160 amateur fights while losing just 10.

The U.S. team has just eight remaining boxers, its smallest contingent since the 1948 London Olympics. World champions Demetrius Andrade and Rau'shee Warren both made weight Friday.

-- CASSIDY

Click to watch VIDEO of Ali's visit to the East Harlem Boys & Girls Club

By Marcus Henry
Marcus.henry@newsday.com

When the US Olympic boxing team walked into the gym of the East Harlem Boys & Girls Club on Thursday, no one was more pleased than Sadam Ali.

The 19-year-old lightweight contender said he is primed and ready to go for the gold at the Summer Olympics in Beijing in August.

But it wasn’t a smooth ride for the Brooklyn native, who was actually suspended late last year after testing positive for cathine, a banned stimulant usually found in cold medicines. Ali’s positive test came after participating in the USA vs. China and Kazakhstan exhibition held in Zunyi.

A positive test carries a two-year suspension from amateur boxing, which would have meant a disqualification from the 2008 Olympics. But Ali appealed the ruling and eventually prevailed after it was determined that he received the cathine from a local doctor after contracting a cold.

Rather than receive a two-year ban, Ali accepted a three-month suspension which expired in February. Ali said it was refreshing to return to the sport he had been involved in since he was eight. “You always have to go through a struggle,” Ali said. “But that was a little bump in the road and it feels good to be here today.”

As for the positive test Ali knew he was innocent. “I was just shocked and surprised, but I knew I had nothing to do with any drugs,” he said. “I knew it had to come from the doctor.”

Considering what he went through, Ali said it’s more important than ever to pass on his experiences. “I love kids,” he said. “Just to watch little kids come up to me is great.”

East Harlem Boys & Girls Club director David Giordano said he was pleased to have the Olympic boxing team in attendance. “The kids were very thrilled,” Giordano said. “This is a great way to expose kids to new opportunities and other kind of experiences.”

The event, which was organized in part by the Everlast and the Children’s Aid Society, was also used to get across the message of good nutrition, according to Children’s Aid Society CEO Bill Weisberg.

“We have a full summer curriculum about champions and healthy bodies,” Weisberg. “[The children] know they won’t be Olympic boxers, but seeing the boxers will teach them to keep in shape and take care of their bodies and don’t get into destructive habits.”