Bantamweight (≤54 kilograms), Men

The US-led boycott meant that two of the top boxers in the world, Jackie Beard of the USA and Hwang Cheol-Sun of Korea were not present in Moscow. A large turnover of boxers since the last major championships also meant that this was a difficult division to predict although Daniel Zaragoza of Mexico and Juan Hernández Pérez of Cuba were both tipped to do well. Zaragoza’s dream of emulating older brother Agustín Zaragoza by winning an Olympic medal was cruelly denied when he suffered a severe cut against Guyanan Michael Anthony in the quarter-finals but Hernández marched on to face José Piñango of Venezuela for the gold medal. Hernández proved to be much too good for Pinango and won every round on each of the five judges’ scorecards. The Cuban had lost to American Jackie Beard prior to the Games and would later lose to another US fighter, Mike Pruitt, both in the USA-Cuba matches. Hernandez’s only other major tournament victory came at the Central American and Caribbean Games in 1982. Both Pinango and Zaragoza went on to successful careers as professionals and for a brief time in 1988 they both held versions of the world super-bantamweight title. The bronze medal won by Michael Anthony remains the only Olympic medal won by a Guyanan through 2012.