Boxing at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Super heavyweight


The men's super heavyweight event was part of the boxing programme at the 1988 Summer Olympics. The weight class allowed boxers of more than 91 kilograms to compete. The competition was held from 22 September to 2 October 1988. 17 boxers from 17 nations competed.
Future world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis of Canada defeated Riddick Bowe of the United States in the final.

Background

The super heavyweight event of the 1988 Olympics was weakened by the absence of a Cuban boxer. Teófilo Stevenson, a veteran three-time Olympic champion whose first Olympics were back in 1972, did not retire anticipating these Olympics. He announced his retirement shortly after the Cuban government decided to boycott the Games. He was 36 years of age in 1988. In contrast, future finalists Lewis and Bowe were rather young, 23 and 21 years old respectively. Possible Cuban alternate Jorge Luis González, 24, had defeated both Bowe and Lewis at the 1987 Pan American Games.
It was predicted that the gold medal would be contested between the North Americans Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe and Europeans Ulli Kaden and Alex Miroshnichenko.

Medalists

Results

The following boxers took part in the event:
RankNameCountry
1Lennox Lewis
2Riddick Bowe
3TAleksandr Miroshnichenko
3TJanusz Zarenkiewicz
5TKim Yu-hyeon
5TPeter Hrivňák
5TUlli Kaden
5TAndreas Schnieders
9TAli Al-Baluchi
9TMohamed Hammad
9TPetar Stoimenov
9TBiko Botowamungu
9TCrispine Odera
9TAziz Salihu
9THarold Arroyo
9TOvwigbo Uba
17TTshibalabala Kadima

First round

Bowe was the more effective fighter in the first round, landing 33 of 94 punches thrown while Lewis landed 14 of 67. In the first round the referee from East Germany gave Bowe two cautions for headbutts and deducted a point for a third headbutt. Commentator Ferdie Pacheco disagreed with the deduction, saying they did not hit heads. In the second round, Lewis landed several hard punches. The referee gave Bowe two standing eight counts and waved the fight off after the second one, even though Bowe seemed able to continue. Pacheco disagreed with the stoppage, calling it "very strange", but Marv Albert said Bowe took "a pounding."