Light-Heavyweight (≤81 kilograms), Men

Julio La Cruz arrived in London as captain of the Cuban boxing team and, more importantly, reigning world champion after having won the title in 2011 in Baku. However Cruz would not add to his collection of medals as he was victim of a shock result at the quarter-final stage when outpointed by Yamaguchi Florentino, a Brazilian who he had comfortably beaten at the Pan-American Games ten months earlier. With Cruz missing from the last four, this opened up the division and it was the former world amateur heavyweight champion Yegor Mekhontsev of Russia who made the most of this opportunity. He easily defeated Florentino in the semi-final then fought Adilbek Niyazymbetov of Kazakhstan in the final.

The fight for the gold medal was as evenly matched as could be with the each fighter winning one of the first two rounds by a single point before tying the third. The two could still not be separated after the countback rule had been enforced so it was the individual preferences of the judges that gave the title to the Russian.