Middleweight (≤75 kilograms), Men

The American Michael Spinks had a short course to get to the final of this class. He had a bye in the first round, had a walkover in round two due to a withdrawal caused by the African boycott, won a unanimous decision in the quarter-finals over Poland’s Ryszard Pasiewicz, and was then to meet Romania’s Alec Năstac, silver medalist at the 1974 World Championships, in the semis. But Năstac had sustained a cut eye in his quarter, and was deemed unfit to fight, so Spinks moved on to the final against the Soviet Rufat Riskiyev, the 1974 World Champion, having had only one fight. Riskiyev had defeated Spinks at a match in Tashkent early in 1976, but in the final, Spinks landed a telling body blow in round three, and the referee had to stop the contest, giving Spinks the gold medal.

Spinks, whose brother, Leon, won the light-heavyweight gold medal in Montréal, turned professional. In 1981 he won the WBA light-heavyweight world title by defeating Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Michael Spinks would hold a version of the light-heavyweight title through 1985 when he moved up to the heavies and defeated Larry Holmes to win the IBF heavyweight crown, the first light-heavyweight champion to move on to become heavyweight world champ. Spinks fought through 1988, winning his first 31 fights, but he retired after losing a heavyweight title fight that year to Mike Tyson.