Heavyweight (>175 pounds), Men

Traditionally the highlight of the boxing events, this was expected to be a close fought competition with a number of highly regarded fighters in contention. One such fighter was the Belgian Albert Robbe, and an American newspaper reported that he had the reputation of being “three parts fighting tiger to one part Jack Dempsey”. After his abysmal performance in losing to Ferenc Nagy of Hungary, they changed this description to have him “stinking like a Gorgonzola cheese”.

Another favored contender, the American Art Oliver, who had served as a sparring partner to the great Joe Louis, lost to the teenage Swede Olle Tandberg in his first bout. The most unusual performance of the tournament came from one of the Austrian coaches who, after his fighter Karl Lutz had lost to a boxer from Luxembourg, ran around the ring literally tearing large tufts of his hair out as an apparent protest at the verdict.

The German champion Herbert Runge moved into the semi-finals with an easy knockout over a Czechoslovakian and a hard fought points victory over the British entry. His opponent in the semis should have been Nagy, but the Hungarian had been injured in his defeat of Tandberg and was forced to withdraw from the tournament. The other semi-final pairing brought together Erling Nielsen of Norway, who had knocked out both his previous opponents, and Guillermo Lovell of Argentina, brother of the 1932 heavyweight gold medalist, Alberto Lovell. Guillermo Lovell’s raw aggression was a little too much for his Norwegian opponent, who had to settle for bronze.

The final started explosively, with Lovell and Runge exchanging powerful punches throughout a reasonably even first round. The decisive moment came near the end of the second round, when Runge knocked Lovell to the floor, but the bell saved the Argentine from a possible stoppage. Runge had the upper hand from then on but, although he ended the fight with what appeared to be bite marks on his shoulder, it was Runge who received two warnings from the British referee.

Runge, an apprentice butcher by trade, was eight times national amateur champion between 1935 and 1943, and was three times a medalist at the European Championships, although the Olympic gold was his only major international title. Turning professional at the age of 33, he had an unsuccessful attempt at the German title. Erling Nielsen won a bronze medal at the 1937 Europeans, but Olle Tandberg went on to win the gold at that tournament and retain it in 1939, and he would have been a favorite for the abortive 1940 Games. Tandberg had a professional career which culminated in a World heavyweight title eliminator against Jersey Joe Walcott. 43,000 spectators at the Råsunda Stadium, Stockholm, watched Tandberg knocked down four times in a five-round defeat. Art Oliver was tragically killed in 1944, when a vehicle in which he was a passenger collided with a train.