Welterweight (≤80 kilograms), Men

Steven Lopez had won this event in Athens in 2004 and had won a gold medal in the featherweight class at Sydney in 2000, and was also a four-time World Champion coming in to Beijing. But he was expecting to be challenged by Iran’s Hadj Saei, the 2004 featherweight gold medalist and 2005 World Lightweight Champion, who was moving up in class. Lopez’s brother, Mark, had already won a silver medal in the featherweight class, while his sister, Diana, would win a bronze medal in the women’s featherweight class.

The first round saw Lopez with a difficult draw, facing Turkey’s Bahri Tanrıkulu, who Lopez had defeated for gold in the Athens final, and who was the 2007 World Champion in middleweight, not an Olympic class. Lopez won, but would not make the final, being upset in the semis by Italian Mauro Sarmiento, whose previous podium finishes included a silver and bronze at the last two editions of the Universiade. Sarmiento met Saei in the final, who advanced with no major problems. The final match was close, with Saei scoring on two kicks in the final round to win, 6-4.