Boxed in?
What happened to boxing as a marquee Olympic sport? CNBC or MSNBC gives it three hours a day, but it's on its own and you really have to want to watch it to catch the coverage, although Teddy Atlas has been entertaining as the color guys, but I miss Marv Albert calling fights, and Fred "I'm not the Fear Factor Guy" Roggin seems superfluous. It feels like it's in its own TV ghetto, especially when you consider it's been getting zero buzz on NBC's coverage. There's been a story about an Iraqi boxer, but I can't name an American boxer, or an international fighter, for that matter. A sport that propelled Cassius Clay, George Foreman, Oscar de la Hoya and Roy Jones Jr. into pro stardom, and created a legend in Teofilo Stevenson, has become as anonymous as judo or taekwondo.

Is the lack of a U.S. presence/medal contender part of it? Aren't there any international fighters who come across as a "must beat" personality? Have Don King, Mike Tyson and Bob Arum wrecked the sport so much that we don't care about the potential future pros who will be coming from the Athens ranks?

Or is it the current judging system, which appears more to test the buzzer reflexes of the judges than the fighters' ability to land a punch? As much as it's easier to follow along, sorta, when you see a score, I think it's a lot more fun to wait for a knockout and/or have a Harold Lederman doing the judging between rounds. In fact, I think he's the guy we're missing to make the coverage complete. He'd work well with Atlas to complain about scoring, although he'd be flustered when he tries to throw it to Jim Lampley, who's got higher-profile anchoring jobs, when it's Bob Papa on the mike.