Wear blue, will lose

I was hoping the Beijing Olympics will erase the Onyok Velasco stigma some years ago, and restore my faith in boxing as an Olympic event.

But unlike swimming, judo, and weightlifting, which kept me wide-eyed in awe, concentration, and admiration, watching boxing got me so frustrated and had me shouting "WTF!" more than I usually do during the daily morning rush drive to work.

I've caught portions of two boxing matches (I couldn't bring myself to watch till the end), where Canada and Australia (?) suffered the worst kind of defeat: "outclassed", 20++-to-zero, "one-way-street", "what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here" kind of defeat.

Both losers have something in common: they wore blue, and their scores simply refused to move up despite delivering visibly solid hits.

Since then, I refused to watch the boxing events.

Just now RP's Harry Tanamor lost to Ghana. "Outboxed", says the commentator.

And the color he's wearing?

Blue.

I wonder if the judges around the boxing ring had their eyes checked.

The overall color of the ring -- its canvass, ropes, etc. -- is shades of blue.

Thus the fighter wearing blue uniform and blue gloves would tend to melt in the background, while the one in red would stand out, majestic and powerful -- so powerful that a simple swing could look like a freakin' Mike Tyson punch.

That's just a theory. Maybe the Olympics Committee should consider this, as well as the rules they use.