Boxing at the 1964 Summer Olympics

The newly built Kōrakuen Hall in the Bunkyo ward of Tokyo hosted the boxing events at the 1964 Olympic Games. Whilst the medals where shared between 18 nations, Poland and the USSR were the most successful teams sharing six gold medals between them. One of the three Soviet champions, middleweight champion Valeri Popenchenko, was awarded the Val Barker Trophy for the outstanding boxer of the Games. The most popular victory of 1964 came from the host nation’s Takao Sakurai whose gold medal at bantamweight was the first by a Japanese boxer in Olympic history.

The final bout of the Games saw the emergence of a boxer who would become one of the professional side of the sport’s biggest stars in years to come. A late call up to the US team after the withdrawal of Buster Mathis, Joe Frazier demolished his first three opponents before grinding out a points victory over Hans Huber of Germany to become heavyweight champion at Tokyo.

As ever there were many disputed decisions but this time protests got much uglier than usual. Spanish featherweight Valentin Loren vented his frustrations at being disqualified by landing a punch on referee and promptly received a life ban from the sport. The next day José Roberto Chirino of Argentina did exactly the same to earn a disqualification from his light-middleweight quarter-final. By contrast Korean Jo Dong-Gi opted for a more pacifist approach and protested his loss by sitting down in his corner and refusing to leave. His protest lasted 51 minutes.