Team USA has been the Olympic boxing standard bearer for decades. It was a factory that produced future heavyweight champions regardless of their weight.Floyd Paterson won the middleweight gold medal at the 1952 Helsinki Games, before winning the heavyweight title. Cassius Clay won light heavyweight gold in Rome eight years later. He went on to become Muhammad Ali. In the second Games, Joe Frazier in Tokyo (1964), and George Foreman (Mexico City (1968) each won more gold at heavyweight.Pernell Whitaker, Oscar De La Hoya, and Leon Spinks, both brothers in the Hall of Fame, continued the gold rush to the '70s/'80s and the '90s. Andre Ward, another Hall of Famer carried it into 2000s but everything has been quiet the past 17 years. Since Ward's 2004 win, no American man has won any gold. However, on the women's side of things, Claressa Shields won silver in 2012 and 2016, while Marlen Esparza won bronze in 2012.Three men are now on the verge of ending the drought: Keyshawn, Richard Torrez Jr. and Duke Ragan.Results"Wouldn’t that be amazing?" ESPN spoke to Foreman about the possibility of American men winning gold in Tokyo. "Nothing but great memories. It was a whole fantastic experience. Overtaken."Ragan, a Cincinnati native aged 23, has the chance to win gold. He defeated Samuel Takyi of Ghana on Monday and advanced to the final featherweight. Ragan (4-0-1 KO in the pros), meets Russia's Albert Batyrgaziev Thursday (2:35 a.m. ET) with gold at stake.Richard Torrez, Jr, a 22 year-old Californian, defeated Cuba's Dainier Peruo in their men's super-heavyweight boxing match. AP Photo/Frank Franklin, IIBoth Torrez and Davis have bronze guarantees, with each of them winning their respective finals. Tulare's Torrez, 22-year-old, will face Kazakhstan's Kamshybek Kukabayev Tuesday at 2:28 a.m. The tournament favourite, Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov who will be facing off against Frazer Clarke from Great Britain. The gold medal will be up for grabs Sunday morning at 2:15 a.m.Davis is the 3-0 pro, a potential future champion. The 22-year old scored a stoppage and advanced to the quarterfinals. Gabil Mamedov, from Russia, was defeated on Monday. In the lightweight semifinal, Hovhannes Buchkov, an Armenian native from Norfolk, Virginia will face him.Andy Cruz from Cuba, who is currently 3-0 against Davis in the amateurs will face Harry Garside of Australia in Friday's semifinals matchup. Davis believes that despite Cruz's dominance in the amateur ranks, he will have the advantage in a possible fourth meeting.Davis stated that "these guys can't defeat me", before the tournament began. "I'm the best at the tournament. ... You won't hit me if I don't want to get hit."Duke Ragan defeated Samuel Takyi from Ghana to reach the featherweight final. RUNGROJ YONGRIT/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockThis is the first time Team USA has permitted pros to compete at the Olympics. It was made possible by the cancellation by COVID of the Americas Olympic Boxing Qualifying Event, which was originally scheduled for May in Buenos Aires.Trois pros, Troy Isley, Ragan, and Davis joined the Tokyo team. They were originally set to represent Team USA in Japan this summer, but the pandemic prevented them from competing. The trio decided to go pro. Two of the trio, as well as one amateur in Torrez have the chance to end this nation’s fistic misery.There are three chances to end this drought. One of them will surely continue the great tradition that legendary fighters such as Ali and Foreman have started before them. It is possible that the wait will soon be over.
