Boxing at the 1960 Summer Olympics

Although many Rome events were held in ancient arenas, the 1960 boxing competition was held at the Palazzo dello Sport, a new stadium constructed for the Rome Olympics in the Piazza Apollodoro. There was no change to the 1960 Olympic boxing program, with the same 10 classes that had been contested at Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956. The scoring system in 1960 was also slightly new, as there were now five judges instead of three as at previous Olympics.

The host team Italians won three titles, highlighted by the welterweight titlist, Nino Benvenuti, later a professional world champion, and the most heralded crown, the heavyweight gold medal, won by Franco De Piccoli. The United States’s boxers also won three gold medals.

But the biggest news of the 1960 Olympic boxing tournament came in the light-heavyweight division (≤ 81 kg), which was won by a young 18-year-old American with the wonderfully Ancient Roman name of Cassius Marcellus Clay. By 1964, as he grew into his 187 cm (6-3) body, Clay had moved up to the heavyweight class and would win the world heavyweight professional title in a bout against Sonny Liston. He would soon thereafter take the Muslim name of Muhammad Ali and become one of the most famous athletes of the 20th century.