Who Medals in My Boxing Olympics Champion Edition?

With the Olympics just wrapping up a few days ago, I got to thinking about what countries would win medals if you looked at champions. There are a lot of countries that have champions, but only a few who could challenge for the gold in these Boxing Olympics.

These are only the real champions so no interim titlists are included on this list. That ruled out some very good fighters such as: Chad Dawson, Paulus Moses, Jorge Solis, Yuriorkis Gamboa, and Nontio Donaire. Super champions were included, but the regular champions in those divisions were not.

If a champion was out of action due to injury for a period of time, the interim champion was included. Edwin Valero is not a full champion, but he is an interim with no regular champion above him.

First I’m going to give the list of countries and the champions that they have. I will also include the titles they hold and any other information, such as the Ring Magazine pound for pound ranking among other things. Many countries were invited, but only a few truly competed.

So here are the resumes of each country.

RESUMES (NO PARTICULAR ORDER):

UK 3

David Haye WBA HEAVYWEIGHT

Carl Froch WBC SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT

Amir Khan WBA SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT

 

Ukraine 3

Vitali Klitschko WBC

Wladmir Klitschko IBF/WBO/RING HEAVYWEIGHT

Sergiy Dzinziruk WBO SUPER WELTERWEIGHT

 

Panama 3

Guillermo Jones WBA CRUISERWEIGHT

Celestino Caballero WBA SUPER BANTAMWEIGHT #10 P4P

Anselmo Moreno WBA BANTAMWEIGHT

 

Germany 5

Marco Huck WBO CRUISERWEIGHT

Juergen Braehmer WBO LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Robert Stieglitz WBO SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT

Felix Strum WBA MIDDLEWEIGHT

Sebastian Sylvester IBF MIDDLEWEIGHT

Kazakhstan 1

Biebut Shumenov WBA LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

 

Canada 2

Jean Pascal WBC LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Lucian Bute IBF SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT

 

USA 9

Tavoris Cloud IBF LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT

Andre Ward WBA SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT

Kelly Pavlik WBC/WBO/RING MIDDLEWEIGHT

Yuri Foreman WBA SUPER WELTERWEIGHT

Cory Spinks IBF SUPER WELTERWEIGHT

Shane Mosley WBA WELTERWEIGHT #3 P4P

Andre Berto WBC WELTERWEIGHT

Devon Alexandr WBC SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT

Timothy Bradley WBO SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT

 

Argentina 2

Sergio Martinez WBC SUPER WELTERWEIGHT

Omar Narvaez WBO FLYWEIGHT (LONGEST REIGNING CHAMPION: WON IN 2002 MOST TITLE DEFENSES: 16)

 

Slovenia 1

Jan Zaveck IBF WELTERWEIGHT

 

Philippines 3

Manny Pacquiao WBO WELTERWEIGHT RING SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT #1 P4P

Rodel Mayol WBC LIGHT FLYWEIGHT

Donnie Nietes WBO MINIMUMWEIGHT

 

Colombia 3

Juan Urango IBF SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT

Yonnhy Perez IBF BANTAMWEIGHT

Carlos Tamara IBF LIGHT FLYWEIGHT

 

Mexico 7

Juan Manuel Marquez WBA/WBO/RING LIGHTWEIGHT #5 P4P

Humberto Soto WBC SUPER FEATHERWEIGHT

Cristobal Cruz IBF FEATHERWEIGHT

Fernando Montiel WBO BANTAMWEIGHT

Jorge Arce WBO SUPER FLYWEIGHT

Giovanni Segura WBA LIGHT FLYWEIGHT

Raul Garcia IBF MINIMUMWEIGHT

 

Japan 5

Takashi Uchiyama WBA SUPER FEATHERWEIGHT

Toshiaki Nishioka WBC SUPER BANTAMWEIGHT

Hozumi Hasegawa WBC BANTAMWEIGHT

Daiki Kameda WBA FLYWEIGHT

Koki Kameda WBC FLYWEIGHT

 

Puerto Rico 4

Roman Martinez WBO SUPER FEATHERWEIGHT

Juan Manuel Lopez WBO FEATHERWEIGHT

Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. WBA SUPER BANTAMWEIGHT

Ivan Calderon WBO/RING LIGHT FLYWEIGHT

 

Indonesia 1

Chris John WBA FEATHERWEIGHT

 

Dominican Republic 1

Elio Rojas WBC FEATHERWEIGHT

 

Armenia 1

Vic Darchinyan WBA WBC SUPER FLYWEIGHT

 

South Africa 2

Simphiwe Nongqayi IBF SUPER FLYWEIGHT

Moruti Mthalane IBF FLYWEIGHT

 

Thailand 1

Oleydong Sithsamerchai WBC MINIMUMWEIGHT

 

Venezuela 1

Edwin Valero WBC LIGHTWEIGHT

 

Hungary 1

Zsolt Erdei WBC CRUISERWEIGHT

 

Nicaragua 1

Roman Gonzlaez WBA MINIMUMWEIGHT

It quickly becomes apparent that the gold medal contenders are the United States and Mexico. There are some other dark horses in the race, but those are the two favorites.

Let's start with the bronze medal contenders. I narrowed those down to Puerto Rico, Argentina, and Ukraine. They all have a good amount of champions who are solid.

It was hard trying to weed out these countries, but I looked at P4P rankings, Ring Champions, and title defenses. There are two countries with a Ring Champion: Ukraine with Wladimir Klitschko, and Puerto Rico with Ivan Calderon.

That leaves Argentina without a Ring Champion, but they land a strong counter punch with Omar Narvaez who is the longest reigning champion, and has the most title defenses. He lacks top competition and that is a fateful blow to their hopes.

When you look at the other champion, Sergio Martinez, he is new to the world title scene and that hurts Argentina. That is the fateful blow for Argentina as they fall out of bronze medal contention.

That leaves Puerto Rico and Ukraine. This was a tough call, and one I examined closely. Both have a Ring Champion, and both have fighters who are considered No. 1 in their divisions. Puerto Rico has more champions, but strength isn’t always in numbers.

When you get to the grit of the champions, the numbers don’t lie. Ukraine’s champions have a record of 128-5-0 (96 KO), and Puerto Rico’s champions come in at 102-0-3 (60 KO) so that doesn’t settle much. It depends on whether you like longevity, or straight up winning.

The deciding factor in this bronze medal round was title defenses. Ukraine has three champions with a total of 14 title defenses, and Puerto Rico has four champions with two title defenses.

The two come from Ivan Calderon, but Juan Manuel Lopez had five defenses before moving up in weight. Roman Martinez and Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. are new titleholders with no prior title experience.

With all the facts, the bronze medal goes to the Ukraine! They win on the strength of their title longevity, and the fact that they have the No. 1 and 2 heavyweights in the world. Puerto Rico has good champions, but I feel inexperience is their downfall.

Now on to the gold medal fight between Mexico, and the United States of America who have the most champions out of all the countries. Mexico has seven, and the USA has nine.

This was a fierce battle as they both have solid veteran champions, and young up-and-comers. They both stand on the same ground with one Ring Champion.

Mexico’s Ring Champion, Juan Manuel Marquez, trumps America’s Ring Champion, Kelly Pavlik. That gives the first round to Mexico.

The next round is Ring pound for pound entrants. Again, they both have one, but America takes this round as Shane Mosley is ranked third, while Juan Manuel Marquez is fifth. With it all tied up at one, we go to the next round.

The US has a total record of 257-11-0 (163 KO), and Mexico’s record is 282-32-10 (197 KO). So with two less champions, Mexico still has the edge in wins, but also has a lot more losses.

You can take this one of two ways: The champions from Mexico are weaker, or the champions from Mexico have more experience. The only way to determine that is who has more title defenses. The USA has seven title defenses, while Mexico has 10.

This really doesn’t tell the story as both have veteran champions who have won titles, and who are at the top of their divisions. This was a tough choice, but the decision came down to one last round.

Unlike any other rounds, I looked at champions who were up-and-coming, compared to guys who were veterans. The USA has more full champions who are up-and-coming than Mexico, and that is what gave USA the edge by the slimmest of margins.

The United States grabs the gold medal, and can celebrate at last. Mexico was a tough opponent, and I would love to hear what you guys think about my outcome.

Mexico could have easily won the gold, and in four years (or less), they will be back with a vengeance. For now the United States can sip their Tecate, and ride off into the sunset to celebrate.