Lightweight (≤60 kilograms), Men

In 1990 17-year-old American Oscar De La Hoya won a gold medal at the Goodwill Games. When his mother died a few months later, he made a deathbed promise to win an Olympic gold medal in 1992. But at the 1991 World Championships, De La Hoya lost his first-round match to German Marco Rudolph, who went on to win the gold medal. Both were in Barcelona along with Cuban star Julio González, the 1989 and 1991 Pan American champion, but he was upset in the second round by Bulgaria’s Toncho Tonchev, clearing the path for Rudolph and De La Hoya, who met in the final. The final was close after two rounds, De La Hoya leading 3-2, but he knocked Rudolph down at 1:09 of the third, and pulled away to win a 7-2 decision.

Oscar De La Hoya turned professional shortly after the 1992 Olympics, and became one of the great professional champions. He held multiple titles, including WBO super featherweight champion, WBO lightweight champion, IBF lightweight champion, WBC light-welterweight champion, WBC welterweight champion, WBC light-middleweight champion (twice), WBA super-welterweight champion, and WBO middleweight champion. Handsome and personable, he used that and his boxing skills to become very wealthy, retiring after 2008 with a career record of 39-6, four of the losses coming in his last seven fights. Rudolph also turned professional, in 1995, and in 1998 fought for the WBO lightweight belt, but lost and then retired with a career mark of 13 wins and 1 loss.