When American boxers in the Olympics were considered the best in the world. Back in 1960, one went on to be considered the greatest of all time.

Beijing -- The United States used to be really good at boxing. There was something oddly comforting about that, something solid about knowing that while our nation was competing against the world in serious stuff like economics and technology and military might, when it came down to it, Americans also could go old school, lace up the gloves, step into the ring and bust up some noses.

Friday in Beijing, in an old relic of Mao's time called Workers Gymnasium, a likeable young American heavyweight named Deontay Wilder fought in a boxing semifinal against the defending world champion, Italy's Clemente Russo. This was newsworthy because Wilder was the only American left in the boxing tournament. All the others had been pounded out. Well, one passed out while trying to make weight. The others lost to boxers from Korea, Great Britain, Bulgaria, France, Mongolia and Romania.

Combined, those countries had won a grand total of 27 boxing gold medals.

Murad Sezer, Associated PressDeontay Wilder, left, didn't score a point on Clemente Russo of Italy until their heavyweight 91-kilogram semifinal boxing match on Friday was nearly over.

Associated Press FileFeatherweight boxer Raynell Williams of Cleveland was knocked out of the Olympics early, blaming poor judging.

Having followed the halcyon days of Cassius and Smokin' Joe and Big George and the young Sugar Ray, how it would have pained the perspicacious Howard to watch these pusillanimous pugilists of our 2008 United States Olympic boxing team land with a thud and a dud.

The latest and last victim was our flamingo-legged heavyweight, Deontay Wilder, who brought literal meaning to "never laid a glove on him" in Friday's listless loss to Italy's Clemente Russo, thereby knocking the entire U.S. boxing team out of Beijing's ring.

Although he earned a bronze medal just by showing up, Wilder's failure meant that for the first time in 112 years of Olympic boxing, the Americans would go down for the medal count without so much as a single gold or silver.

BEIJING -- The poorest performance by a U.S. boxing team since the sport's Olympic debut in 1896 came to an end today when heavyweight Deontay Wilder dropped a 7-1 decision to Italy's Clemente Russo.

Wilder's automatic bronze for reaching the semifinals will be the Americans' only boxing medal of these Games.

Not since the 1948 London Olympics has a U.S. boxing team come away with a single medal. But at least in that one, the medal that welterweight Horace Herring took was silver. It is the first time in 112 years of the modern Olympics that no American boxer has done better than a bronze.

Beijing -- A light heavyweight boxer from Tajikistan was disqualified for biting his opponent on the shoulder during their Olympic quarterfinal bout Tuesday night.

Dzhakhon Kurbanov's bout with Kazakhstan's Yerkebulan Shynaliyev was stopped with 17 seconds left in the third round when Kurbanov apparently bit Shynaliyev during a clinch.

Shynaliyev, who angrily showed the blood on his shoulder to the referee, led, 12-6, at the time. Kurbanov had been warned multiple times for shoving and holding his opponent.

Kurbanov is a 22-year-old fighter who got off to an auspicious start in Beijing last week, beating world champion Abbos Atoev in his first bout. He won the 2005 Asian championships as a middleweight, and was competing in his first Olympics.

Oddly enough, the evening card at Workers' Gymnasium was watched by Evander Holyfield, who was infamously bitten on the ear by Mike Tyson on June 28, 1997.

Beijing -- In a hallway of the Beijing Workers' Gymnasium on Friday night, U.S. boxer Raynell Williams of Cleveland buried his head in a towel, leaned against a door and wondered just what it was he had done so wrong on an evening when he appeared to do everything right.

Rick Bowmer, APRaynell Williams' (right) loss to France's Khedafi Djelkhir is one of several bouts raising questions about the boxing judges in Beijing.

A few feet away, his coach, Dan Campbell, gnawed on a toothpick and glared.

"I just called back to the people in the tape room and everybody said it was [expletive]," Campbell said after Williams lost a second-round fight he looked to have decisively won against France's Khedafi Djelkhir. Williams "was landing three shots to one."

The U.S. men's basketball team is 3-0 after beating Greece, 92-69, Thursday. LeBron James (Akron/Cavaliers) had 13 points, six rebounds and six assists. Michael Redd (Columbus) didn't get much playing time (three points in six minutes), but seems to be enjoying himself. He's been spotted at table tennis, swimming, tennis and diving competitions.

Matt LaPorta (Akron Aeros) hit a three-run homer off Shairon Martis (Columbus Clippers) in the U.S. baseball team's 7-0 victory over the Netherlands. The U.S. team played Cuba late Thursday. Cleveland State junior Nedim Nisic was 64th for Bosnia in the 100 butterfly preliminaries.

Featherweight Raynell Williams (Cleveland) boxes France's Khedafi Djelkhir at 9 a.m. in the round of 16. Williams counterpunched his way to a 28-18 victory over Djelkhir last year at the world championships.

In track and field, hammer thrower A.G. Kruger (Ashland) and world No. 1 heptathlete Hyleas Fountain (Kettering) competed early this morning. Tonight, Josh McAdams (Broadview Heights) runs in a steeplechase prelim at 9:20. Mary Wineberg (Cincinnati) runs a 400 heat after midnight.

Also today, Katie Smith (Logan/Ohio State) and the women's basketball team play Spain at 10 a.m., and Hanna Thompson (Ohio State) competes in team foil.

The women's soccer team with defender Heather Mitts (Cincinnati) plays Canada. The U.S. has won four of five non-Olympic games against Canada this year.

Rick Bowmer / APFlyweight Rau'shee Warren, above, one of the few medal hopefuls for the U.S. boxing team lost his opening-round match Tuesday to South Korea's Lee Ok-sung.

BEIJING -- The United States sent nine boxers to the Olympics. After four days of competition, five remain. There are a few viable medal contenders within that group, but the team is reeling after Cincinnati's Rau'shee Warren, the reigning flyweight world champion and the team's best hope of winning gold, lost his opening bout, 9-8, to Lee Ok-sung of South Korea.

Warren was inconsolable afterward, falling into the arms of a USA Boxing publicist. Between sobs, he said, "I lost, I want to go home," and twice paused an interview to wipe tears from his eyes. Warren, 21, the only returning boxer from the 2004 Olympics, passed up a potentially lucrative professional career after his first-round light flyweight loss in Athens in an effort to fulfill his promise to his mother, Paulette, of placing a gold medal around her neck. His future, like his team's, is now in flux.

Once a boxing superpower, the United States has had a turbulent few months, with Warren's loss ranking as perhaps the most disappointing moment of its time here. The coach, Dan Campbell, went so far Tuesday night to say that the bizarre circumstances surrounding the outcome of Warren's match, which he said was scored unfairly, threatens to dent the confidence of the remaining boxers.

"I think they will most definitely going to be psyched out," Campbell said. "We have a psychologist around, and we're going to make sure she'll talk to the team. I'm sure all of them are going to be psyched out by this."

AP PhotoCleveland's Raynell Williams reacts after defeating Alessio di Savino of Italy at a men's featherweight 57 kg preliminary boxing match at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Monday, Aug. 11, 20

An unlikely draw put the world's top two featherweights together in the first round, with the 20-year-old Lomachenko forced to take on Selimov, who beat him in the world championship finals last November in Chicago.

Both fighters showed talent several notches above their peers at Workers' Gymnasium, including victorious American Raynell Williams. But Lomachenko boxed 2 1/2 nearly perfect rounds to finish the bout, showing flair and smarts while handing Russia its first loss of the Olympics.

BEIJING -- Two days after a U.S. boxer collapsed trying to make weight before his Olympic debut, another member of the team lost his opening match while fighting with what a team doctor called a tiny hole in his right lung. Javier Molina, a light welterweight, said he felt sluggish and weak after losing soundly to his Bulgarian opponent Sunday night.

The 18-year-old Molina could not match the speed and skill of Boris Georgiev, a former Olympic bronze medalist, and lost in a 14-1 decision. In discussing why Molina was overmatched, U.S. coach Dan Campbell suggested that part of the reason stemmed from the hole that was discovered Saturday morning.

"I felt I was too slow," Molina said after the fight, but before his condition was revealed. "By the time I was in, he was out and he counterpunched."

Dr. Bill Kuprevich, the team's chief physician, said the cause of the hole remained unclear, but that Molina's health was not in danger. The hole was too small, Kuprevich said, for radiologists to detect its exact location, though its effects were severe enough to prevent Molina from engaging in full workouts for the past two days. Campbell said Molina was not cleared to box until 8 p.m. Saturday.

Ed Andrieski / APTwo-time U.S. national champion Gary Russell Jr. (119 lbs.), left, will miss the Olympics after collapsing early Friday morning while trying to make weight.

BEIJING -- One of the United States' best hopes for a boxing medal will not compete in the Olympics after collapsing early Friday morning in a final effort to make weight.

The coach of the U.S. boxing team, Dan Campbell, said Gary Russell Jr., 20, a two-time national champion, was trying to shave a few extra pounds to get down to the required weight for a bantamweight, 119 pounds, when he fainted at the Olympic Village.

Russell was found at about 2:30 a.m. by his roommate and teammate, Luis Yanez, who alerted Campbell to call paramedics. They found him in what Campbell called an "extremely dehydrated" state. They fed him fluids and stabilized his blood pressure, Campbell said. Russell remained under medical attention through Friday morning. He was not cleared in time to attend the mandatory weigh-in. Russell has not had to fight at 119 since last November's world championships.

Campbell said he and his staff grew alarmed a few days ago when they noticed that Russell had not been sweating in workouts as much as his teammates. They urged him to increase his fluid intake, particularly considering the brutal heat and humidity here. Campbell said he was skeptical Russell did.

"These kids, when they're trying to cut weight, their idea is to take shortcuts," Campbell said.

Campbell said Russell, who was putting off shoulder surgery until after the Olympics, was devastated and wanted to leave immediately and return home to Washington but that he planned to meet with him and the USA Boxing chief executive officer, Jim Millman, before deciding.

"We thought he was a very good shot at a medal, and we tried to tell the team, when we have these kinds of adversities, we still have eight guys in there, and we're concentrating on those eight guys," Campbell said.

Associated Press"I really haven't changed. I'm just doing my work. Once I'm in the ring and they put a guy in front of me, I'll do my best."
• Related: Boxer has Olympic champ in his corner

But he is not.

When Williams steps into the boxing ring at the Beijing Olympics next week, he will try to become the first Cleveland boxer in 56 years -- and the third overall -- to win a boxing gold medal. It is an enormous task, and maybe because of that, Williams keeps his emotions in check. A year ago, he was a long shot to even make the U.S. team.

The Plain DealerNate Brooks, left, shared a moment last spring with fellow Clevelander Raynell Williams.

But it always helps to get a little advice, and that's what Brooks, the 1952 Olympic boxing flyweight gold medalist, and Williams talked about when they met for a few minutes in April. Although both noted their discussion was limited, Brooks said it was good to meet a fellow Olympian.

Brooks was 19 when he won the 112-pound division at the Helsinki Games. Williams turned 19 in February.

"He has to fight his fight," said Brooks, who will turn 75 on Monday. "He probably fought better boys making the team than [he will fight] over there.

"I wished him good luck," said Brooks. "Really, he knows what he has to do."