Willie, Mickey or the Duke? Wilt or Russell? Tastes great or less filling?

In debating the merits of the various U.S. Olympic boxing teams, there is near-unanimous agreement by experts that the two best squads to represent this country in the ring were in 1976, at Montreal, and in 1984, in Los Angeles.

Ah, but which of those two powerhouses stands alone at No. 1?

The 1984 team yielded a record 11 medals, including nine golds, also a record. Philadelphians Meldrick Taylor and Tyrell Biggs were among those to take gold, joining Mark Breland, Pernell Whitaker, Paul Gonzales, Jerry Page, Frank Tate, Henry Tillman and the late Steve McCrory. Evander Holyfield likely would have been the 10th gold medalist, but he had to settle for a bronze as the result of a controversial disqualification in a semifinal bout he was winning handily against New Zealand's Kevin Barry.

The most notable name from the celebrated '76 team that had a haul of seven medals, including five golds, is Sugar Ray Leonard, who went on to win world championships in five separate weight class as a professional. In addition to Leonard, other gold medalists were Leo Randolph, Howard Davis Jr. and the Spinks brothers, Michael and Leon.

Each group went against fields thinned by boycotts. Twenty-eight black African nations stayed away from Montreal to protest participation in the Olympics by New Zealand, which had flouted international sanctions by welcoming a touring rugby team from South Africa, whose white ruling class had an official policy of apartheid.

Thirteen Soviet Bloc countries, and Cuba, chose not to go to Los Angeles in retaliation for the United States having boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Not surprisingly, Leonard said he believes the 1976 U.S. Olympic boxing team is the strongest America has ever fielded.

"I may be biased, but I consider my team better than any other team," Leonard, who upset Cuba's Andres Aldama in the final, said from his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif. "We went to Montreal favored to win only one gold medal, and that was by Howard Davis.

"But we surprised a lot of people, didn't we? We showed to the world that we had a sensational, incredible team. All of our final matches were against Cuba, against Russia. To win, we had to beat the best of the best."

Retired sports writers Jerry Izenberg, of the Newark Star-Ledger, and Ed Schuyler Jr., of the Associated Press, each began covering the Olympics in 1960. They agree with Leonard that the '76 team achieved more in light of the more difficult opposition it had to face.

"The 1976 team wins, absolutely," Izenberg said when asked to compare the '76 and '84 powerhouses. "That 1976 [team] was much better. It's more difficult to assess the 1984 team because it didn't go against the best competition and, it seemed to me, there were a couple of home-country decisions along the way, as there always are."

Schuyler also comes down strongly on the side of the 1976 team.

"That was by far the best team the United States has ever produced," he said. "Hands down. It's not even fair to compare that bunch with any other.

"Leo Randolph beat a Cuban. Leon Spinks beat a Cuban. Sugar Ray beat a Cuban. I mean, come on. Yeah, there was a boycott by some of the African countries, but they weren't medal threats in boxing for the most part. The Russians and the East Germans and especially the Cubans were."

Philadelphia's Al Mitchell, who coached the 1996 U.S. Olympic boxing team whose only gold medalist was David Reid, also a Philadelphian, said the level of competition gives the '76 team the nod over the '84 group.

"I'm going to go with the 1976 team because all the major boxing countries were there," he said. "When the top countries aren't there, it makes a big difference. A lot of them weren't there in '84, which is one of the reasons we did so well." *