Olympics:While the Irish boxing team are already guaranteed at least three medals, with the prospect of more to come when Paddy Barnes fights later tonight, the last American male boxer exited the London Games last night to complete a humiliating first Olympics without a medal for the most decorated nation in the sport.
Welterweight Errol Spence lost 16-11 to Russian Andrey Zamkovoy in his quarter-final, failing to take advantage of the second chance given to him by organisers AIBA, who changed the result of the American's previous bout after a video review.
Spence's loss followed that of his eight team mates as the Americans outdid their woeful one bronze from the Beijing Games four years ago. Not the result you would expect from a nation that can boast previous Olympic gold medallists such as current middleweight champion Andre Ward, multiweight belt holder Oscar de la Hoya or the greatest of them all, Muhammad Ali.
Spence said more should have been done and appealed for help from the country's previous Olympians to fix the issues before the 2016 Games in Brazil. "I think we need more international fights early, we need a better programme, we can't rush into things like we did," Spence said.
"We need to get the coaches earlier and have a lot of the professional boxers who leave the amateur system come back in and help out with the amateur programme. They have a lot of experience and knowledge that would help us in 2016. I think Andre Ward had a lot of experience, just a lot of the past Olympians like (middleweight) Andre Dirrell."