The boxing competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia was held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour. The event was only open to men and bouts were contested over four rounds of two minutes each. Five judges scored the fighters in real time and the boxer with the most points at the end was the winner.
Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports.
In boxing, the undisputed champion of a weight class is the boxer who simultaneously holds world titles from all recognized major organisations by each other and the International Boxing Hall of Fame. There are currently four major sanctioning bodies: WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO. There were many undisputed champions before the number of major sanctioning bodies recognizing each other increased to four in 2007, but there have only been 18 boxers to hold all four titles simultaneously.
Sven Ottke is a German former professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2004. He was a unified super-middleweight world champion, having held the IBF title from 1998 to 2004, and the WBA (Unified) title from 2003 to 2004. With 21 successful title defences, Ottke was the fourth European boxer to retire as an undefeated world champion, after Jack McAuliffe, Terry Marsh, and Michael Loewe; Joe Calzaghe later became the fifth. Ottke defended the title against 20 boxers, a record in the super-middleweight division shared with Joe Calzaghe. As an amateur, Ottke won a bronze medal in the middleweight division at the 1989 World Championships.
Ariel Hernández Azcuy is a boxer from Cuba, who won two Olympic gold medals in the Middleweight division (71–75 kg); at the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics. He captured the world title at the 1995 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Berlin, just two months after having triumphed at the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata.
Egypt, which is represented by the Egyptian Olympic Committee (EOC), competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States from July 19 to August 4, 1996. Twenty-nine Egyptian athletes, twenty-seven men and two women, competed in boxing, handball, judo, rowing, shooting, swimming, weightlifting, and wrestling, but the nation did not win any medals.
Richie Woodhall is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2000. He held the WBC super-middleweight title from 1998 to 1999, as well as the Commonwealth middleweight title from 1992 to 1995, and the European middleweight title from 1995 to 1996. As an amateur, Woodhall won a gold medal at the 1990 Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 1988 Summer Olympics, both in the light-middleweight division.
Robin Reid is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2012. He held the WBC super-middleweight title from 1996 to 1997, and the IBO super-middleweight title from 2004 to 2005. As an amateur, Reid represented Great Britain at 1992 Summer Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the light-middleweight division.
Sakio Bika is a Cameroonian-born Australian professional boxer. He held the WBC super-middleweight title from 2013 to 2014, and previously the IBO super-middleweight title from 2008 to 2010. In 2015 he challenged once for the unified light-heavyweight world title, and in 2007 won the third season of The Contender reality TV series.
The Central African Republic competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. This marked the third appearance of the nation at a Summer Olympics. The country entered 15 competitors, the highest number of Central Africans appearing at any Games so far; with the basketball team comprising 12 of them. In addition to the boxers Fidèle Mohinga and Moussa Wiawindi, there was marathon runner Adolphe Ambowodé, who had previously competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics. No medals were won by any of those athletes.
Mohamed Hikal is an Egyptian boxer. He won the bronze medal in the men's middleweight division (75 kg) at the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships. He competed in four Olympic Games from 2000-2012.
Torsten Schmitz is a retired German boxer in the Light Middleweight class. He represented East Germany at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Randie Carver was an American professional boxer from Kansas City, Missouri.
Joseph William Calzaghe is a Welsh former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2008. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including unified and lineal titles at super-middleweight, and the Ring magazine light-heavyweight title.
Mujandjae Kasuto is a Namibian amateur boxer who has competed twice at the Olympics.
Evans Ashira is a Kenyan former professional boxer, a multi-weight world title challenger, who is best known for his loss to Joe Calzaghe in 2005, but also unsuccessfully challenged Maselino Masoe for the WBA World Middleweight Title in 2004. He competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in the Welterweight division, losing to Uzbekistans Nariman Ataev.
Bernard Hopkins Jr. is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2016. He is one of the most successful boxers of the past three decades, having held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the undisputed middleweight title from 2001 to 2005, and the lineal light heavyweight title from 2011 to 2012.
Joseph Marwa is a retired male boxer from Tanzania, who represented his native East African country in two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1988 (Seoul). Nicknamed The Hungry Lion he also competed at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. Marwa won a silver medal in the light-middleweight division at the 1991 All-Africa Games, losing in the final to Kabary Salem of Egypt. Joseph Marwa is currently situated in Zanzibar, Tanzania and works as the head bouncer of a very well known hotel, Kendwa Rocks in Kendwa.
Egypt competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012, sending one of its largest delegations ever. A total of 110 Egyptian athletes participated in 83 events across 20 sports, with more women taking part than ever before. The nation's flagbearer in the opening ceremonies was Hesham Mesbah, a judoka who was Egypt's only medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Egypt won two medals during the course of the Games: Alaaeldin Abouelkassem earned silver in the men's foil, becoming the first competitor from an African nation to win a fencing medal, while Karam Gaber captured silver in the men's 84 kg Greco-Roman wrestling event. Two Egyptian weightlifters were awarded medals retroactively, after higher-ranked competitors were disqualified for doping: Abeer Abdelrahman took silver in the women's 75 kg event, while Tarek Yehia, received bronze in the men's 85 kg event. Among other achievements, Mostafa Mansour was the nation's first competitor in sprint canoeing while fencer Shaimaa El-Gammal became the first Egyptian female to appear in four editions of the Olympics.
The men's light middleweight event was part of the boxing programme at the 1992 Summer Olympics. The weight class allowed boxers of up to 71 kilograms to compete. The competition was held from 27 July to 9 August 1992. 30 boxers from 30 nations competed.
