UK Olympic Boxing Team at London 2012
All eyes are on the UK’s boxing team at the Summer Games this year, and for three very clear and equally important reasons. The most obvious to sports fans in general is that the Summer Games are taking place in London this year, making the British boxing squad the hometown team. Just as prominent, however, are this year’s squad and how the British did in Beijing four years ago.
The UK boxing team was a big winner at the last Olympics, bagging one gold and two bronzes in some of the most exciting matches at that Games. None of those medalists are returning this time around, but the squad still looks very strong. Seven boxers qualified for the men’s boxing team this year, giving the British an out-sized team, and with it more chances to take medals.
- Luke Campbell (Bantamweight): AIBA’s #3 amateur bantamweight in the world, Campbell owns a bronze and a gold from the European championships, bagged the 2010 Four Nations Challenge, and captured silver at last year’s world championships in Baku.
- Fred Evans (Welterweight): At 21 years of age, Evans is one of the younger members of the squad. Despite this, he won gold at the 2011 European championships, and is ranked by AIBA at #3.
- Anthony Joshua (Super Heavyweight): Joshua is another young one, and will be only 22 at the his first Olympic games. Despite this, he is a major contender for a medal in the sport’s heaviest weight class. He bounced back from a marijuana-dealing charge in 2011 to go to Baku, where he won silver. At that tournament, he defeated Beijing’s super heavyweight gold medalist, Roberto Cammarelle of Italy, only to be defeated by hometown favorite and current #1 ranked Magomedrasul Majidov. Joshua is ranked #4 himself, behind the two aforementioned contenders and Filip Hrgovic of Croatia.
- Anthony Ogogo (Middleweight): Ogogo might be the best known British boxer on the squad this year, at least to the British public at large. A semi-professional model, the Anglo-Nigerian appeared in a Big Brother reality TV program. His international stature is limited, but he did win a silver at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, gold at the Gee Bee tournie in the Czech Republic, and was voted Boxer of the Year by the ABA of England in 2011.
- Andrew Selby (Flyweight): Selby has an Olympic story before even reaching the games, as he was one of two British boxers to qualify in the same division this year, along with Khalid Yafai. Both boxers couldn’t go, so a box-off was held and Selby prevailed. Furthermore, this is the same storied Selby who gave Misha Aloyan of Russia a perilously close fight in Baku. Selby had to settle for silver at the Baku World Championships, but he brought home gold from the 2011 European championships. He is ranked #2 in the world, right behind Aloyan, so a rematch between these two fighters at any stage in the tournament is a fight to watch for, and Selby might very well be the Briton most likely to bring home a boxing gold this year.
- Tom Stalker (Light Welterweight): On a squad made up of mostly youngish, new faces, Stalker is a veteran. He will be 28 by the time of the Summer Games, and has a long, trophy-decked amateur career behind him. Stalker won gold at the 2008 EU championship, and went back for a silver in 2009. Those wins led him to 2010’s silver at the European championships, and gold at the Commonwealth Games. Last year, Stalker took another European championship silver and a bronze at Baku’s world championship. He is currently the #1 amateur light welterweight in the world.
- Josh Taylor (Lightweight): The only Scotsman on this year’s squad, Taylor is a novice on the international amateur stage, but has started out impressively enough. He won a silver at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, a silver at the 2012 Feliks Stamm tournie in Poland, and won his place at the recent qualifier tournament in Trabzon. However, it should be noted that Taylor is ranked below fellow Briton Martin Ward by AIBA, and Ward only enters the list at #47!
