6. Guillermo Rigondeaux – Cuban bantamweight (2000-2004)

Rigondeaux achieved professional success with stunning speed largely because of the vast experience he gleaned from an amateur career that saw him go an astonishing 374-12 and capture back-to-back golds in the bantamweight division. Until his defection in 2009, Rigondeaux had not lost a fight in six years.

Rigondeaux was – and is – a fighter who had it all: Lightning-quick hands, airtight defense and textbook technique. He used that to build an unquestioned Olympic legacy, one that could have extended to at least one more Olympics, had he not tried to bolt Cuba’s shores.

As it was, Rigondeaux was unbeatable at the Olympics as he won 10 straight, three by knockout. In Sydney he stopped Tunisia’s Moez Zemzeni in one and Japan’s Kazumasa Tsujimoto in three before out-pointing Turkey’s Agasi Agaguloglu by nine, American Clarence Vinson by 12 and Russia’s Raimkul Malakhbekov by six to win his first gold.

Rigondeaux flashed less power in Athens as he scored only one knockout (RSC 3 of Pakistan’s Mehar Ullah), but his experience enabled him to assert his superiority a second time. He defeated China’s Liu Yuan (21-7), Russia’s Gennady Kovalev (20-5), Uzbekistan’s Bahodirjon Soltonov (27-13) by an average of 14.3 points per match before upending Thailand’s Worapoj Petchkoom 22-13 in the gold medal match. With that victory, Rigondeaux improved on his average winning margin in distance bouts from nine points in Sydney to 12.75 in Athens.