THE 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Banks and Maynard of U.S. Will Meet Argentine Boxers Tonight
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INDIANAPOLIS — Kelcie Banks, the United States’ world champion featherweight, drew a bout Wednesday for tonight’s first session of the Pan American Games tournament.
Banks, from Houston, will fight Marcos Cristofalo of Argentina. The only other member of the 12-boxer U.S. team boxing tonight will be national light-heavyweight champion Andrew Maynard, a soldier from Ft. Carson, Colo. He will box another Argentine, Oscar Gonzalez.
The United States and Cuba, who together won 20 of the available 36 medals at the 1983 Pan Am Games and who should also dominate this tournament, will meet in three weight classes.
Monday, lightweight Patrick Byrd, who has no international experience, will fight Cuban Julio Gonzales. Also Monday, middleweight world champion Darin Allen will box Cuban Angel Espinosa. American Riddick Bowe will fight Jorge Gonzales, Cuba’s defending Pan Am super-heavyweight champion.
Meeting Cubans in the first round isn’t necessarily the surest path to a heavy medal haul here, but to U.S. Coach Roosevelt Sanders, it doesn’t matter.
“Our kids have trained hard to come here and box successfully against Cubans, and the sooner the better,” he said. “Our guys figure that in order to win here, they’ll have to box Cubans eventually anyway.”
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