Boxing at the 2004 Summer Olympics

The 2004 Summer Olympics saw the continued dominance of Cuba over the sport of amateur boxing as fighters from the Caribbean island won medals in 8 of the 11 weight divisions and added five more Olympic titles to their steadily increasing collection. Fighters from the former Soviet Union had a successful Games with, as in 2000, Russia and Kazakhstan being foremost amongst them.

It was a Kazakh who proved to be the outstanding stylist of the Games and middleweight champion Bakhtiyar Artayev was duly awarded the Val Barker Trophy for his performances in the tournament. Veteran Cuban Mario Kindelán and Russian super-heavyweight Aleksandr Povetkin were among the other leading contenders for the award.

This was the 2nd and, so far, the last time that bouts consisted of 4 rounds of 2 minutes apiece. Fights would revert to the usual 3 x 3 minute format for the Beijing Games. This was the 1st games since the abolition of the light-middleweight division from amateur boxing.