Heavyweight (≤91 kilograms), Men

All the medalists at the 1982 World Championships were from Soviet-bloc or Communist countries, so none of them were in Los Angeles, because of the Soviet-led boycott. The 1983 Pan American Games final had come down to Cuba’s Aurelio Toya defeating American Henry Tillman. Tillman made the 1984 US Olympic team, but he had to twice defeat the young amateur, Mike Tyson. In Los Angeles, Tillman made it to the final, facing Canadian Willie deWit, the 1982 Commonwealth Games gold medalist who had beaten Tillman twice before. In the final, Tillman won a unanimous decision to earn the gold medal. Tillman won something else in Los Angeles. He met Gina Hemphill, the granddaughter of Jesse Owens, who had carried the torch in to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at the Opening Ceremony, and they fell in love and later married. After the Olympics Tillman turned professional but with less success than many of the 1984 gold medalists. He retired in 1992 with a career mark of 25 wins and 6 losses. DeWit also turned professional, winning 21 bouts, losing 1 and drawing 1. He became Canadian heavyweight champion, but never fought for a world title. He retired in late March 1988, winning his last bout in a 10-round decision, … over Henry Tillman.