Olympic boxing's weird moments
BEIJING -- A couple of Twilight Zone happenings have taken place at the boxing venue this week.
On Monday night, we were having a conversation with longtime boxing broadcaster Jimmy Magee, who has broadcast every Olympics since Mexico City on Irish national television. We were talking about the 1988 Roy Jones fight in Seoul and how that controversial decision changed the course of scoring procedures in Olympic boxing.
In the midst of the conversation, a tall, good-looking man walked up and started to chat with Magee. When he left, Magee shook his head and asked if we knew who that was.
"That was Richard Woodhall, the Brit who won a bronze medal in Seoul in the same weight division as Roy Jones," he said. "How many millions of people in this city and at these Games, and we sit here talking about the Roy Jones thing and in walks Richard Woodhall."
On Wednesday night, Associated Press reporter Greg Beachem was calmly typing away as the last match of the day took place, when he realized a fighter had been disqualified and the action had ended. He ran down to the mixed zone to find out what had happened and was told that one boxer had bitten the other.
He went back to his desk to write, then realized whom he had seen at ringside earlier that night.
Evander Holyfield.
-- Bill Dwyre
