Patrizio Oliva

Personal information
Nickname	Sparviero
Born	(1959-01-28)28 January 1959 (age 67) Naples, Italy
Height	177 cm (5 ft9+1⁄2 in)
Weight	Light welterweight Welterweight
Boxing career
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	59
Wins	57
Win by KO	20
Losses	2
Medal record Men'sBoxing Representing Italy Olympic Games 1980 Moscow Light welterweight European Championships 1979 Cologne Light welterweight Mediterranean Games 1979 Split Light welterweight

Patrizio Oliva (born 28 January 1959) is an Italian formerprofessional boxer, who won thegold medal in thelight welterweight division at the1980 Moscow Olympics as anamateur and theWBAlight welterweight title as a professional.

Patrizio is one of seven brothers born to Rocco and Catena Oliva.

Oliva was introduced to boxing through his father Rocco and his brother Mario's passion for the sport. One of his brothers, Ciro, died and Oliva dedicated a number of his fights to the memory of Ciro and also named his first son after him.

Oliva had a successful amateur career and won 93 of his 96 fights winning the Italian, European and Olympic titles.^[1]

At international level Oliva won the 1978 European Junior Championships inDublin, Ireland and silver medal at the 1979 European Senior Championships inCologne, West Germany. Oliva was beaten by Soviet boxerSerik Konakbayev in the final of the Cologne championship and stated that his fight against Konakbaev was the hardest of his career. The following year he represented his country and boxed at theOlympic Games for Italy and would again face Konakbaev.

Following two years of winning European title Oliva competed in the blue vest of Italy at the1980 Summer Olympics, which were held in Moscow,USSR.

Oliva competed in theLight Welterweight (– 63.5 kg) division. He defeated Beninese Aurelien Agnan in his first contest after referee stopped contest in first round. In his second contest he stoppedSyrian Farez Halabi in the third round and beat YugoslavianAce Rusevski in the quarter-final. In the semi-final Oliva faced British boxerTony Willis. This fight went the full three round distance and Oliva was once again victorious after all five judges gave him the decision.

On 2 August 1980, Oliva once again met his opponent from the final of the 1979 European championships, Serik Konakbaev, in the final of the Olympics. This time Oliva reversed the result by beating Konakbaev in front of his home crowd to take the gold medal and win theVal Barker Trophy for being"Outstanding Boxer" at the 1980 Olympics.

• Defeated Aurelien Agnan (Benin) RSC-1
• Defeated Farez Halabi (Syria) RSC-3
• DefeatedAce Rusevski (Yugoslavia) 3–2
• DefeatedTony Willis (Great Britain) 5–0
• DefeatedSerik Konakbayev (Soviet Union) 4–1

Within two months of winning gold at the Moscow Olympics, Oliva turned professional. His first fight was on 11 October 1980 against Italian basedBrazilian Nelson Gomes in Naples, Italy. Oliva defeated Gomes on points over six rounds to secure his first victory as a professional.

After Oliva's first win in theprofessional ranks, he then went on a run of victories. From October 1980 to August 1981, Oliva won thirteen straight fights before he fought for his first title belt, the Italian light welterweight title against Giuseppe Russi on 4 November 1981 inIschia. Oliva handled Russi with ease winning the title with a second roundknockout. Oliva followed his first title win by winning a further eleven straight fight between November 1981 and October 1982.

This left Oliva with a record of 25 victories with no losses and earned him a fight againstFrenchman Robert Gambini for a chance to win for his firstmajor title, theEuropeanlight welterweight title. Oliva was again victorious and took the title from Gambini on points over twelve rounds. Gambini retired from boxing after the fight.

Oliva continued his run of career victories by winning his first 48 fights, including a victory overUbaldo Nestor Sacco in 1986 to capture theWBAlight welterweight title.^[2] Oliva defended the title twice before losing toJuan Martin Coggi byKO in 1987. After a two-year rest, Oliva came back and went on to win his next 9 fights, setting up a shot atWBCwelterweight title holderJames McGirt in 1992. Oliva lost via unanimous decision,^[3] and retired after the bout with a record of 57–2–0.

Oliva has been married twice and has four children.^[4] He's an atheist.^[5]

• List of world light-welterweight boxing champions

• Boxing record for Patrizio Oliva fromBoxRec(registration required)
• Patrizio Oliva atOlympedia

• 1959 births
• Living people
• Italian male boxers
• Boxers from Naples
• Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Italy
• Competitors at the 1979 Mediterranean Games
• Mediterranean Games medalists in boxing
• Welterweight boxers
• Boxers at the 1980 Summer Olympics
• Olympic boxers for Italy
• Olympic gold medalists for Italy
• Olympic medalists in boxing
• Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics
• European Boxing Union champions
• World light-welterweight boxing champions
• World Boxing Association champions
• 20th-century Italian sportsmen
• Italian atheists

• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
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