Light-Heavyweight (≤81 kilograms), Men

Zbigniew Pietrzykowski, the man who lost to Cassius Clay in the final at the 1960 Games, returned as a veteran of 30 for his third Games having been a decisive winner of the previous year’s European title. Also present in Tokyo was the winner of the pre-Olympic tournament, Cosimo Pinto of Italy, who had also won this class at the Mediterranean Games in Napoli. The story of the early rounds was the showing of Aleksey Kiselyov of the Soviet Union. Kiselyov had moved up in weight from the middleweight division but had adapted well and was noted as a strong and aggressive fighter. The stocky Soviet accounted for Pietrzykowski in the semi-finals and was fully expected to use his strength to batter Pinto in the final. What happened next didn’t conform to expectations and instead the fight developed into a fairly negative affair. Two judges awarded the contest to the Italian by a single point whilst the other three had the two men level at 59 points apiece. Two of the tied judges awarded their preference to the Kiselyov but crucially the German judge opted for Pinto and the man from Novara was crowned Olympic champion. Pinto fought on as an amateur and retired in 1968 still only 25 years of age.