Rufat Asadovich Riskiyev, the Uzbek boxer who won an Olympic silver medal representing the Soviet Union at the 1976 Montreal Games, died on August 15, 2026, at the age of 76.
Riskiyev trained at the Dynamo sports society and rose to prominence early in his career, winning the world title in the middleweight division at the inaugural World Amateur Championships in Havana, Cuba, in 1974. Two years later, he represented the Soviet Union at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, working his way through the middleweight bracket with wins over opponents from Finland, Bulgaria, Pakistan, and Cuba before facing American boxer Michael Spinks in the final. The bout was stopped by the referee in the third round, handing Riskiyev the silver medal behind the future two-division world champion.
Riskiyev is remembered as one of the standout amateur boxers of his generation, a world champion and Olympic medalist whose career helped establish Uzbekistan’s boxing tradition within the broader Soviet sporting system.