History suggests the United States should clean up in the boxing ring at the Summer Olympics. Team USA has 48 gold medals to Cuba’s 32, far more than any other country in the modern era. But it might as well be the ancient Olympics. The U.S. is a distant third on the Beijing odds list at 5-1, behind Russia (10-11) and Cuba (7-4).

The twilight of American boxing was the 1988 Games in Seoul, where Team USA won three gold medals (it should have been four – Roy Jones Jr. was shafted). They’ve won a total of three since then. Cuba has 20. However, their boxing team has been decimated by a series of defections. None of the five winners from Athens will be at Beijing this year.

That leaves the powerful Russian team. They won three gold medals at Athens and picked up another three at last year’s World Boxing Championships. No Ivan Drago jokes, please.

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