RIO DE JANEIRO ? Augie Sanchez has finally made the U.S. Olympic men?s boxing team, and he still harbors dreams of gold. But it?s 2016, not 1996, and Sanchez has long ago hung up the gloves.
He no longer dreams of climbing on a podium and having a medal placed around his neck while ?The Star Spangled Banner? plays and the crowd roars in tribute.
Instead, Sanchez hopes to play a part in helping an American male boxer win an Olympic gold medal for the first time since Andre Ward in 2004.
Sanchez, 38, is now an assistant coach for the U.S. men?s team, a dedicated boxing lifer who works out of a gym owned by his in-laws in a gritty section of Las Vegas.
He?s part of the 2016 American team, but he came so close to being on the team two decades ago.
Even as he looks forward to helping the U.S. team regain its lost luster in Olympic boxing, it?s hard not to look back at what might have been.
In 1996, Sanchez defeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the Olympic trials in Oakland, California, putting him a step away from a berth on a stacked American team headed to Atlanta.
That team included future stars such as Fernando Vargas, David Reid and Antonio Tarver. It remains, by far, the most talented American team of the last 20 years.
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Under the rules at the time, the winner and the runner-up at the Olympic trials went to the box-offs. The winner of the trials needed one victory to make the Olympic team, while the runner-up needed to win twice in the box-offs to qualify.
Mayweather entered the Olympic selection process that year as a heavy favorite to make the American team, but Sanchez upset him in Oakland 12-11 to become the Olympic trials champion.
?Oh man, I?ll never forget that,? he said of his win over Mayweather. ?That third round. It was a great third round. My aggression and my willingness to win did it for me.? View photos
Floyd Mayweather lost to Augie Sanchez at the Olympic trials in 1996. (Getty) More
He hit Mayweather, which few were able to do up to that point and even fewer have been able to do since. Mayweather became one of the great defensive boxers in history as a pro, accumulating a 49-0 record largely on an uncanny ability to keep from being hit.
Sanchez was not nearly as quick or slick as Mayweather was, and had a style more suited to the pros than the amateurs. In the amateurs, it?s all about making contact and piling up punches. The power of the blows doesn?t count.
In the pros, power is a critical part of the scoring criteria.
Sanchez smiled when asked for his secret to the riddle that no one could solve.
?That?s going to cost you,? he said.
Mayweather lost to Serafim Todorov in the Olympics, though that remains one of the Games? most controversial decisions, and there have been suggestions, including by Todorov himself, that the verdict may have been corrupt.
Sanchez, though, legitimately beat Mayweather with a style he said he developed over time. The two had been friends in the amateurs, though for most of their time, Mayweather fought in a lighter weight class.
Mayweather was a tremendous counter puncher and the key to beating him, Sanchez said, was to make Mayweather throw first.
?It was controlled aggression and counter punching,? Sanchez said of his strategy. ?You had to back him up. I had to keep walking him down. I had to make him throw and in order to do that, I had to keep the pressure on him so I could throw my counter. I needed good timing and I was able to do that.?
It was the win of a lifetime, though at the time he didn?t see it that way. Mayweather wasn?t yet a legend, and Sanchez had Olympic dreams.
When Mayweather won the losers? bracket, it set up a showdown with Sanchez at the Olympic box-offs. Mayweather won the opener 22-8, setting up one bout over three life-altering rounds for that coveted spot on the Olympic team.
