Danny Green - Amateur Boxing Career and The Olympics

Amateur Boxing Career and The Olympics

Born in Perth, Western Australia, he had success at the State Amateur level led to him being selected for an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship to prepare for 1998 Commonwealth Games and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Green qualified for the Olympic team, stopping Brazilian Laudelino Barros in the fourth and final round of his first bout. However, Green was technically knocked out in the later rounds of his bout against Russian Alexander Lebziak due to Lebziak holding a points advantage that was seen to be too great for Green to overcome - a regulatory circumstance typically viewed in Olympic boxing as an indication that one fighter is outclassed by the other - boxing fights within Olympic contests (unlike professional boxing) are often stopped if and when a fighter is deemed to be so significantly behind on points that the likelihood of him recovering the disadvantage and being successful is seen to be marginal. In these circumstances that are defined by a set threshold margin between the points each boxer attains throughout the bout, due to health and safety concerns the fight is stopped if one boxer has a points lead that is equal to or greater than the set threshold. After the bout was stopped for these purposes and because Alexander Lebziak attained such a points lead, Green claimed his hand was broken and spoke of the fight in terms that attributed the loss to his broken hand. However, right from the start of the contest and throughout the entire bout Lebziak was noticeably dominant and Green sustained what many believed to be facial injuries from Lebziak's punches. Lebziak was an excellent Russian boxer and he then went on to claim the Olympic Gold Medal.