Super heavyweight boxing at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad | |||||||||||||||||
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Venue | Chamshil Students' Gymnasium | ||||||||||||||||
Dates | 22 September – 2 October | ||||||||||||||||
Competitors | 17 from 17 nations | ||||||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||||||
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Boxing at the 1988 Summer Olympics | |
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Light flyweight | men |
Flyweight | men |
Bantamweight | men |
Featherweight | men |
Lightweight | men |
Light welterweight | men |
Welterweight | men |
Light middleweight | men |
Middleweight | men |
Light heavyweight | men |
Heavyweight | men |
Super heavyweight | men |
The men's super heavyweight event was part of the boxing programme at the 1988 Summer Olympics. The weight class allowed boxers of more than 91 kilograms to compete. The competition was held from 22 September to 2 October 1988. 17 boxers from 17 nations competed. [1]
Future world heavyweight champion 23-year-old Lennox Lewis of Canada defeated 21-year-old Riddick Bowe of the US in a controversial final. [2]
The super heavyweight event of the 1988 Olympics was weakened by the absence of a Cuban boxer. Teófilo Stevenson, a veteran three-time Olympic champion whose first Olympics were back in 1972, did not retire anticipating these Olympics. [3] He announced his retirement shortly after the Cuban government decided to boycott the Games. He was 36 years of age in 1988. In contrast, future finalists Lewis and Bowe were rather young, 23 and 21 years old respectively. Possible Cuban alternate Jorge Luis González, 24, had defeated both Bowe and Lewis at the 1987 Pan American Games. [4]
It was predicted that the gold medal would be contested between the North Americans Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe and Europeans Ulli Kaden and Alex Miroshnichenko. [1]
Gold | Lennox Lewis Canada |
Silver | Riddick Bowe United States |
Bronze | Aleksandr Miroshnichenko Soviet Union |
Bronze | Janusz Zarenkiewicz Poland |
The following boxers took part in the event: [1]
Bowe was the more effective fighter in the first round, landing 33 of 94 punches thrown (34%) while Lewis landed 14 of 67 (21%). In the first round the referee from East Germany gave Bowe two cautions for headbutts and deducted a point for a third headbutt. Commentator Ferdie Pacheco disagreed with the deduction, saying they did not hit heads. In the second round, Lewis landed several hard punches. The referee gave Bowe two standing eight counts and waved the fight off after the second one, even though Bowe seemed able to continue. Pacheco disagreed with the stoppage, calling it "very strange", but Marv Albert said Bowe took "a pounding." [5]
Riddick Lamont Bowe is an American former professional boxer and former professional kickboxer who competed between 1989 and 2008 in boxing, and from 2013 to 2016 in kickboxing. He held the undisputed world heavyweight championship in 1992, and won the super heavyweight silver medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Janusz Zarenkiewicz is a Polish former amateur boxer. He won a bronze medal in the super-heavyweight division at the 1988 Summer Olympics, where he forfeited his semi-final fight to eventual gold medalist Lennox Lewis. Zarenkiewicz also won bronze at the 1985 European Championships and was a five-time Polish national champion.
Aleksandr Viktorovich "Alex" Miroshnichenko was a Russian-Kazakh professional boxer. As an amateur he represented the Soviet Union at the 1988 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the super-heavyweight division.
Ulrich Kaden is a former East German amateur boxer, best known for winning the European title 1987 and 1989 at super heavyweight.
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