Oh Sharkey, shame on you for letting facts get in the way of the typical feel good story of robberies only mattering when one of our fighters get the short end of the stick. When a foreign fighter gets jobbed, that's not important. Let's sweep it under the rug and bury our heads in the sand.
I can't help myself, my friend. The decisions the Americans were "gifted" in '84 have been swept under the rung for long enough, and I've tried to pull them them back out over the last few years. Especially when I see comments from guys like this Spook character about what an embarrassment it was for the South Koreans and what a travesty it was. It was bad, don't get me wrong. But it reeks of a whole lot of hypocrisy when the Americans did the exact same thing to the Koreans the previous Olympics, and were also the ones to fire the first bullet in all that went down back then between the two boxing nations. Are we to ignore all that even though the horrible decision Jerry Page received over Kim Dong Kil in '84 played such a pivotal part as the thing that ignited that whole mess? I suppose there's plenty on this side of the pond that would like to have it that way.
Spook should check out the archives of his own hometown paper, the L.A. Times, Aug 14th, 1984, where they gave out a bunch of "awards" for various going-ons from the boxing events during those Games. Jerry Page's win was honoured with;
"Worst Decision: Page's 4-1 win over Kim Dong Kil in the quarterfinals."
At least there was one person from L.A. that knew what was up. But really, the L.A Times writer was far from the only one;
"The South Koreans were particularily incensed when Jerry Page, the U.S light welterweight who went on to win a gold medal, was given a 4-1 quarterfinal decision over Kim Dong Kil,
though it was clear to all in attendance that Kim had fought well enough to win."
- Sports Illustrated, Aug 20th, 1984
That writer knew what was up too, as did "all in attendance" who loudly boo'd the decision even though it went to a hometown fighter. Plenty of other American writers knew what was up too, but just a couple of quick quotes. And remember these are written from an American perspective. Besides them immediately threatening to take their fighters out of the boxing competition right after Page got the undeserved decision and some later threatening comments about what they "learned" from that verdict (and an earlier one involving Paul Gonzalez, which was not too bad...more complaints about the 5-0 scoring), who really knows what the Koreans think of that fight all these years later. On this side of the pond, Roy being victimized is brought up a lot. But what about the Koreans? During the recent Beijing Games, a British writer by the name of Neil Clark alluded to what the Koreans may still think after all these years;
"To this day, South Koreans are still mystified as to how their boxer Kim Dong-Kil was adjudged to have lost 4-1 on points to America's Jerry Page at the Los Angeles Olympics, despite having outclassed his opponent."
Kim Dong Kil wins the 1st round against Jerry Page in a clear enough manner with some room to spare. The 2nd is an even pick 'em round with both having equal arguments to winning it (or scored even). The 3rd round sees the Korean bouncing punches of Page and dominating throughout, including hurting him on a couple of occasions, in what was a clear two point round under the amateur scoring system at the time.
Kim Dong Kil wins the fight clearly to anybody with two eyes. At the next Olympics, Roy Jones does the same and wins clearly to anybody with two eyes...One is called an "embarrassment", a "travesty" and whatever else. The other one is what? Swept aside even if it did play such a huge factor with the other more famous one?
Understanding one is understanding the other. Forever are the two fights linked.
