Light-Heavyweight (≤81 kilograms), Men

The last two world champions in this class were Germans. East German Henry Maske won the title in 1989 but turned professional in 1990, just after German re-unification, leaving the 1991 crown to Torsten May. May was favored in Barcelona and came through for the gold medal, but he had difficult bouts in both the quarter- and semi-finals. In the quarters he faced the much shorter American Montell Griffin, who opened a big cut over May’s eye in the final round. The referee actually stopped the fight but the ring doctor let it go on, with Griffin leading. But Griffin then received a third warning for leading with his head (ducking), and was given a 3-point penalty, which proved decisive as May won the match, 6-4. In the semi-finals, May fought Poland’s Wojciech Bartnik, and spent much of the fight clinching to protect his cut eye, but won a narrow 8-6 decision. May won the gold by outpointing the Ukrainian Rostyslav Zaulychniy in the final, 8-3.

May would turn professional in 1993 and in 1996 fought for the IBF cruiserweight world championship, but lost a decision to Adolpho Washington. He retired after 2003 with a career record of 22-3. Griffin also turned professional and continued to fight through 2011. In 1997 he upset Roy Jones, Jr. when Jones was disqualified, giving Griffin the WBC world light-heavyweight title. But that didn’t last long as Jones knocked out Griffin in the first round of the re-match five months later.