Luis Yáñez Removed From U.S. Olympic Boxing Team
And then there were eight. Last week, USA Boxing removed Luis Yáñez, its team captain and representative at 105 lbs., from the Olympic Boxing team for disciplinary reasons. The Dallas Morning News reports that the 19-year-old Yáñez repeatedly failed to report to USA Boxing’s Colorado Springs training headquarters and refused to answer his phone for the entire month of June. As a result he is not going to Beijing.
Yáñez has his own side of the story. He says that he was tending to his sister who was in drug rehab and couldn’t be bothered to report his whereabouts to his coach for an entire month. Yáñez is appealing his ban.
USA Boxing coach Dan Campbell has struck first in what may prove to be a vicious war of words. The Dallas Morning News again quotes Campbell as calling Yáñez “one of the biggest liars I’ve ever met.”
On www.fightbeat.com, however, Yáñez’s Dallas-based personal coach went into great deal about Campbell’s poor coaching especially in reference to Luis. “I feel like Luis gets a better workout in Dallas than he does in Colorado Springs.”
The article details how Campbell stifles the team’s more flamboyant personalities - Yáñez, Sadam Ali, and Javier Molina - forcing them to be vanilla, bland, and straight-forward. What happened to the America’s Olympic heritage of flashy boxers? Sugar Ray Leonard and Muhammed Ali? What if they had been told to tone it down? Would they have trained elsewhere?
Luis’ former Olympic teammate Molina concurred “I’d rather be home getting ready for Beijing. I’m really not sure how much Dan knows about boxing. (H)e tries to make all of us fight in the same exact style. I don’t have confidence in him and I don’t trust him.”
We wonder how a coach so reviled and inexperienced could have landed the position of USA Boxing head trainer? Why couldn’t more money have been spent on a viable coach? If Yáñez is let back then Campbell’s authority will surely have been undermined, and he sounds like a fellow who WILL NOT BE UNDERMINED! Will Yáñez’ dismissal be a precursor to more dismissals? Perhaps the Draconian arm of USA Boxing law should be focused elsewhere and away from its athletes.
Below is a youtube of Yáñez’ fight against April 26 fight against Puerto Rican amateur Ryan Aquino. It might be the last time you see Yáñez as an amateur.
Tags: , Beijing, Dan Campbell, Javier Molina, Luis Yanez, Muhammed Ali, Olympics, Sadam Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, USA BoxingRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Boxing
2 opinions for Luis Yáñez Removed From U.S. Olympic Boxing Team
A.Zavala
Jul 6, 2008 at 2:40 pm
It is not right but watch Yanez overcome this obstacle any many more to come in his big career
Michael Sedor
Jul 6, 2008 at 6:21 pm
I agree with you A.Zavala. Kicking him off the team was wrong. I hope that Luis can rebound from what sounds like an immature response from an authority figure.
There are so few good American flyweights nowadays and Yanez looks like a great and exciting prospect.
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