Olympic UnGlory
The controversial odyssey of Heavyweight boxer Evgeny Tishchenko
August 15th, 2016. The rain of boos in the Riocentro Pavilion nearly drowned out the PA system. It had to happen. Something had to go wrong in boxing at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Russian Heavyweight boxer Evgeny Tishchenko seemed to bow his head in shame as the Olympic Gold medal was draped over his neck. He knew as well as anyone, the gold did not belong to him this time.
I had been jinxing it for days when I began telling people:
“The Olympic boxing has been so good this time, I’m almost tired of watching great fights!”
The action has been off the charts in nearly every fight. The variables that threatened to sour things, cuts and bad decisions by judges, stayed in the shadows for a week.
Finally, we were reminded that this is Olympic boxing. The mutant lovechild of two corrupt athletic constructs, each fraught with controversy. Two weird flavors, that can bring out the worst in each other.
The Future Of Boxing Is Not Today
Tishchenko himself did not deserve the boos. The 6’5" 21-year-old fought his heart out for the entire Olympic tournament. He may well be the future of boxing’s heavyweight division. But today, he was dominated by Kazakhstan’s Vassiliy Levit.
Levit bullied and out-boxed Tishchenko for the duration of the fight. Even before Tishchenko was visibly rocked by punches in the third round, his arms seemed to flail loose and wild.
The 28-year-old Levit’s technique rarely faltered. He appeared to land two clean punches for every one of Tishchenko’s looping hooks. When Tishchenko leaned his weight on Levit in desperate attempts at rest, Levit found spacing and landed punches inside.
In the third round, Tishchenko looked out of gas and on the verge of being knocked unconscious. Levit did his best to keep the fight out of the judges hands. Tishchenko was tough enough, and wrestled enough, to stumble to the final bell.
The judges had the fight 29–28 for Tishchenko. I couldn’t give Tishchenko more than one round even if I wanted to. There were rumors of bribery and corruption preceding the games, now we had a criminally bad decision to serve as evidence [1].
Tishchenko needed no help from the judges to get to this far. Before meeting Levit, Tishchenko had clearly out-boxed his previous three opponents. If the judges had been bribed to give the Russian a pass in earlier bouts, they had an easy day’s work.
Tishchenko’s workdays in the ring, however, were not so easy.
Any champion, in any sport, will tell you they have a target on their back. Every NFL team wants to make an example of the reigning SuperBowl champion, any time they meet. For Tishchenko, the reigning amateur heavyweight world champion, this was also true.
One of the most difficult aspects of large tournaments is scouting your opponents. Teams competing in the NCAA’s basketball tournament have trouble researching and preparing for each other.
In Olympic boxing this is even harder, as some boxers come out of nowhere, with no accessible recorded video.
Not so for Evgeny Tishchenko. Winning two major tournaments in 2015, before the Olympics, means footage of Tishchenko is all over the place:
He was the favorite to win Olympic gold before the tournament began. If you were a fighter training for the tournament, you could do worse than studying Tishchenko — just in case you had to face him.
The Running Of The Bulls
Tishchenko’s first bout was against Brazilian heavyweight Juan Nogueira. Nogueira was the smaller man, fighting in his home country, against a world champion, in a tournament that suddenly emphasized aggression over precision [2, 3]. All of this combined to motivate Nogueira to the performance of his life. This was Brazil’s Rocky Balboa vs. Ivan Drago.
For the first round Tishchenko appeared off balance. Tishchenko’s career in the amateur ranks began when the sport still judged fights on the one-point-per-punch scoring system, long before the “effective aggression” judging of the 2016 games. The old scoring favored fencing-style jab-and-run tactics.
Tishchenko initially tried to employ the jab-and-run against the charging Nogueira. After several exchanges, in which Nogueira nearly ran over the lanky Russian, Tishchenko realized he needed to break out the heavy artillery. You could perceive a look of surprise on Tishchenko’s face, as Nogueira ate punches and came back for more.
By the end of the first round Tishchenko was throwing every punch in the book. Nogueira kept coming, throwing his own looping shots and occasionally finding success.
But Tishchenko’s technique, timing, and footwork were better. His height and reach advantages also helped him score clean from relative safety.
It was a battle for all three rounds, but Tishchenko’s skill had elevated him in each. You could have given Nogueira the decision, if you simply hated backpedaling fighters, but Tishchenko had been more effective overall. The judges gave the fight to Tishchenko, but as the NBC announce team said of the winner: “he know’s he’s been in a fight”.
And THIS Is A ‘Good Day’!
Italian Clemente Russo probably had eyes on Tishchenko for much of the Russian’s career. The elder Russo has been fighting on the world stage since Tishchenko was in grade school. Luckily for Tishchenko, Russo was a much smaller man, having moved up a weight class. Russo was also having issues updating his style for the new scoring rules.
Russo had nearly lost his preceding bout, when his jab-and-run style met the swarming aggression of Hassen Chaktami. Russo vs. Tishchenko looked to be a rather academic jab-fest, on paper, which would have been an easy night for the taller Tishchenko.
But even in the point-fighting days of amateur boxing, standard “Tall vs. Small” rules applied. The smaller boxer must pressure the taller fighter if they are to have any chance at overcoming the reach disadvantage. Russo had the experience to see that he’d have to charge the Russian, to land punches.
And Russo behaved as if this was his big fight. He couldn’t muster the reckless charges of Nogueira, but this was not the point-fighting Russo who scraped by Chaktami. Again and again, Russo attempted to work his way inside and land big punches. Clearly, the Italian knew he needed to hurt the big Russian if he was going to pull off the upset.
This was Tishchenko’s easiest fight of the tournament, against a savvy amateur boxing veteran looking to take his head off. But the same calculating style that had benefited Russo against lesser opponents was his undoing in this match.
Each time Russo entered Tishchenko’s range with a planned combination, he took a moment to check his work, and Tishchenko would collect a tax for the encroachment. Here, finally, the Russian talent was able to spread his wings.
A clear unanimous decision for Tishchenko. Another easy day at the office for the judges.
Can A Guy Get A Break?!
Uzbekistan’s Rustam Tulaganov either lacked the experience to fight like Russo, or observed the success Nogueira had found with his wild volleys.
Three days removed from his bout with Russo, and five days from his war with Nogueira, the top ranked amateur heavyweight was was being thrown into the wood-chipper again. Tulaganov showed everything you could want from an Olympic athlete: hunger for victory, respect for his opponent, and an apparent joy. He smiled throughout the tournament, as if to say “Hey! I’m at the Olympics! This is great!”
Nogueira and Russo had been focused warriors against the preordained Goliath from Russia. Tulaganov looked like a kid enjoying a game of baseball. Each time Tishchenko hit him, Tulaganov responded as if it had simply been the first strike at bat, and Tulaganov would swing again.
The miles were beginning to show on the champion. Tishchenko’s arms were always like predatory serpents, but now they were starting to look like the rubbery limbs of old cartoon characters. The big man was getting worn out. His jab didn’t have the snap, his elbows were flaring a bit wide as he punched or defended.
And yet, still, Tishchenko was a class above Tulaganov. Making better choices with his punches, landing the better shots, and outmaneuvering the Uzbek just enough to earn the decision.
The Best Face The Best
Despite early predictions that Tishchenko would face off with Cuban Erislandy Savon for the gold, Vassiliy Levit earned his place in the final bout of the Heavyweight tournament. And the world of boxing is better for it.
A battle between Tishchenko and Savon could have played out as a jab-cross chess-match like the Olympic matches of 2014, 2012, and so on. Instead, in Vassily Levit, we got a technically proficient boxer-puncher who was willing to push the pace against everyone he faced. The slick-boxing Savon, though never visibly rattled, couldn’t keep Levit off of him.
Having seen every fight in the tournament thus far, I internally asked the question “Is Tishchenko rested enough to keep Levit off of him? Is Levit going to be fresh enough to push Tishchenko like he did Savon?”
Tishchenko was visibly gassed and worn out. Levit looked great. So great, in fact, that even the best version of Tishchenko may not have been enough to beat Levit. Sure, Tishchenko’s jab wasn’t the sharp weapon it had been against Nogueira, but Levit walked through Savon’s best work.
At times, against either Tishchenko or Savon, Levit looked like a boxing machine. Stepping through the incoming fire, never faltering, making sure to land his own punches. Levit beat Savon, in the scorer’s eyes, with effective aggression. Levit beat-down Evgeny Tishchenko before the eyes of the world.
Evgeny wore the face of a beaten man before the bout ended. The boos began as soon as the decision was announced. Levit conducted himself with class, despite the obvious robbery, and the two competitors nodded respectfully.
As we waited for the medal ceremony, I began to ponder if Tishchenko would surrender his medal to Levit. A wild thought, but the decision of the judges was that egregious to me.
The boos grew to a thunderous roar as the gold medal was given to the visibly upset Tishchenko. Was he upset by the boos? I want believe Tishchenko was just as upset by the injustice of the decision as anyone else. Either way, the Russian did not relinquish the gold to Levit. For all we know, the Russian giant was in shock.
Levit grew his own legend a bit when he gestured for silence from the booing crowd, allowing Tishchenko a moment of peace at the podium.
Evgeny Tishchenko left everything he had in the ring, and is worthy of praise.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind if the entire arena dumped rotten tomatoes on the judges.
Face-punch Utopia?
You never know what will happen with amateur fighters like Tishchenko or Savon. Well, in Savon’s case he’ll probably remain an amateur forever, as is Cuban tradition. Similar talents in the U.S., when they exist, tend to chase millions in the professional ranks as soon as possible.
At just 21 years of age, and with room to grow both physically and technically, Tishchenko could be the future of professional boxing’s heavyweight division. The fresh Tishchenko who fought against Nogueira was a bit of a unicorn in today’s boxing landscape: a huge man with solid boxing skills.
It isn’t hard to imagine Tishchenko performing well against Deontay Wilder or Tyson Fury — If he can grow into his frame and develop a 12-round gas tank.
At 28-years-old, Vassiliy Levit (the real Olympic champion), has a smaller window of opportunity to cash in on his boxing ability. Hopefully we will see him join the professional 190 or 200+ pound ranks soon.
My readers know that I am against the current boxing paradigms. I want to see all current amateur and professional boxing organizations dismantled and reformed into one NFL/MLB/UFC-styled “league”. That said, these Olympic games, with their emphasis on effective aggression, and vigilant policing of clinch-rules, have provided some of the most breathtaking boxing I have ever witnessed.
Tishchenko, Nogueira, Tulaganov,… All names we may see at the top of the pro ranks in the future. Vassiliy Levit is the rightful 200-pound Champion of the 2016 Olympics. Vassiliy Levit is the best of the best.
Evgeny Tishchenko does not deserve your boos, or your pity. The 21-year-old fought through an odyssey and gave a bold account of himself. No other heavyweight had to face the rehearsed beatings this young man was guaranteed from the start, simply by being a Champion.
“There is no greater fame for a man than that which he wins with his footwork or the skill of his hands.”
— Homer, The Illyiad
Ancient quote’s and competitions aside, this young athlete deserves nothing but respect for his efforts in the ring.
Twitter: @Cazzbot
Footnotes:
- Irish world champion Michael Conlan was the victim of another terrible decision on Tuesday, August 16th, the day after Tishchenko’s UnGlory.
- The rio2016.com website for Olympic Boxing describes the new scoring system, as pictured in this article.
- The Guardian’s Alex McClintock discusses the scoring system of the previous 36 years.
