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Make that North Americans. Seemingly, nothing could impede the march of two Canadians, Light Middleweight Shawn O'Sullivan, 22, and Heavyweight Willie deWit, 23, to the finals. The two white fighters were featured in promoter's-dream match-ups with black Americans Frank Tate, 19, and Tillman, 24. O'Sullivan's war with Tate was an Olympic highlight, a furious battle during which Tate was twice given standing eight counts before rallying to win unanimously. Earlier, O'Sullivan had been tattooed during the semifinals by a tough Frenchman named Christophe Tiozzo, and won only when the jury, an innovation supposedly designed to eliminate controversy rather than foment it, reversed the judges' decision. DeWit, a rugged Dutchman from Grande Prairie, Alta., sleepwalked his way through a couple of fights, but displayed his box-office appeal in a quarterfinal bout when he put Dodovic Owiny of Uganda down and out with a thunderous left. Even though he lost a unanimous decision to Tillman in the finals, his pro future as a white hope with a punch seems assured.
Not all the breaks went the Americans' way. Evander Holyfield, 21, an unheralded, hard-slugging light heavyweight from Atlanta who had won his first three bouts by knockouts, suffered a bizarre loss to a thoroughly outclassed Kevin Barry of New Zealand. Holyfield was disqualified for striking a blow after the Yugoslav referee had ordered a break. Never mind that the punch knocked out Barry; never mind that Barry had been fouling Holyfield and was on the verge of disqualification; never mind that Holyfield probably could not have heard the referee's command over the crowd noise. But do bring to mind the moment when Barry gallantly raised Holyfield's arm in acknowledgment of the American's triumph. A U.S. protest was ultimately disallowed, and a disappointed Holyfield had to settle for the bronze. Barry won the silver, leaving Yugoslav Anton Josipovic to win an uncontested gold.
The judging controversies were largely rooted in the idiosyncrasies of Olympic scoring, which rewards boxing, not brawling. Under the rules, a cleanly landed jab counts as much as a knockdown blow; in three 3-min. rounds, the objective is to be effectively aggressive, not lethal. Despite a strong third round, U.S. Middleweight Virgil Hill, 20, lost a split decision in the finals to Joon-Sup Shin because the South Korean had outpointed him in earlier rounds. On the judge's part, it takes surgical concentration to count the blows and apportion their weight. Spectators conditioned by the blood sport of the pros often forgot that.
But losses or judging reversals were the rare exceptions as the U.S. juggernaut rolled on. Even ABC'S Howard Cosell, the unofficial cheerleader of the team, seemed taken aback at the one-sidedness of the competition. Said Cosell, just before Holyfield's disqualification: "The overwhelming succession of American victories has become almost embarrassing." Nearly every weight-class competition yielded a U.S. champion with a distinctive style and something to prove.