Boxing at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Middleweight


The men's middleweight event was part of the boxing programme at the 1976 Summer Olympics. The weight class allowed boxers of up to 75 kilograms to compete. The competition was held from 19 to 31 July 1976. 19 boxers from 19 nations competed.

Medalists

Results

The following boxers took part in the event:
RankNameCountry
1Michael Spinks
2Rufat Riskiyev
3TLuis Martínez
3TAlec Năstac
5TRyszard Pasiewicz
5TDragan Vujković
5TFernando Martins
5TSiraj Din
9TJean-Pierre Malavasi
9TDave Odwell
9TPhil McElwaine
9TBernd Wittenburg
9TIlian Dimitrov
14TCarlos Betancourt
14TBryan Gibson
14TNicolás Arredondo
14TMohamed Saoud
14TFulgencio Obelmejias
14TJorma Taipale

First round

In the gold medal bout, American rookie Spinks faced the veteran Soviet Rufat Riskiyev, the 1974 World Champion. Riskiyev had defeated Spinks at a match in Tashkent early in 1976, but in the final, Spinks landed a telling body blow in round three, and the referee had to stop the contest, giving Spinks, just 19 years of age, the gold medal.
Spinks, whose brother, Leon, won the light-heavyweight gold medal in Montreal, turned professional. In 1981 he won the WBA light-heavyweight world title by defeating Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Michael Spinks would hold a version of the light-heavyweight title through 1985 when he moved up to the heavies and defeated Larry Holmes to win the IBF heavyweight crown, the first light-heavyweight champion to move on to become heavyweight world champ. Spinks fought through 1988, winning his first 31 fights, but he retired after losing a heavyweight title fight that year to Mike Tyson.
Riskiyev, who was 27 at the time of the 1976 Olympics, stayed in the amateurs, as the Soviet system did not allow any athletes to turn pro, though he didn’t achieve further success.