Welterweight (≤67 kilograms), Men

Welterweight was considered one of the most competitive weight divisions contested in 1972. As well as the 1968 champion Manfred Wolke of the GDR, the veteran Hungarian János Kajdi, Jesse Valdez of the USA and the teenaged Pan American Games champion from Cuba, Emilio Correa, were all touted as possible Olympic champions. The first of the four to fall was Wolke although his exit at the hands of Correa was due to a cut eye that happened in the second round of an otherwise even contest. The Cuban then eliminated Valdez in the semi-finals with 3-2 points decision after a desperately close contest to set up a meeting with Kajdi in the final. While the Hungarian was recognized as the most skillful boxer it was the strength of Correa that proved the dominant factor in their meeting and, despite the Cuban being forced to take a standing count in the first round, the judges unanimously voted Correa as the new Olympic champion.

Correa won the welterweight title at the first World Amateur Championships in 1974 but failed to retain either his Pan American Games or Olympic titles and retired in 1979. Thirty-six years after his father’s Olympic triumph his son, Emilio Jr., reached the middleweight final of the 2008 Olympics only to lose to Great Britain’s James DeGale.