Howard Davis Jr.

CTL-E-7108 · Person · other · 1956–2015

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07980 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-7108.

Howard Edward Davis Jr., born February 14, 1956, in Glen Cove, New York, learned boxing from his father and built one of the finest American amateur careers of his era: AAU titles, four Golden Gloves crowns, and the featherweight title at the first World Amateur Championships in 1974. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, boxing days after his mother died of a heart attack, Davis won the lightweight gold medal, defeating Romania's Simion Cuțov by unanimous decision in the final, and was awarded the Val Barker Trophy as the outstanding boxer of the Games — an honor Olympedia notes he earned as the tournament's best technical boxer on a celebrated American team that also included Sugar Ray Leonard and Leon and Michael Spinks. He dedicated the medal to his mother. As a professional, Davis campaigned from 1977 into the 1990s without winning a world title, and Olympedia records his final professional mark as 36 wins, 6 losses and 1 draw. He later worked as a trainer, including in mixed martial arts. Davis died of lung cancer on December 30, 2015, at the age of 59.

The record

• Also known as: Howard Edward Davis Jr.

Notes

Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0497. Timing variance, stated openly rather than blended: Olympedia's event account says Davis's mother died two days before the Olympics started; BoxRec says three days before his first Olympic bout; other accounts say one week before. The description carries only the form all three support — she died days before the Games, of a heart attack — and the detail is left unadorned, as the packet directs. Honor stated in Olympedia's exact form: Val Barker Award as the best technical boxer at the 1976 Olympics (elsewhere rendered Val Barker Trophy, outstanding boxer of the Games — the same honor). Totals: professional record 36-6-1 as Olympedia states it. Identity: Howard Edward Davis Jr. of Glen Cove, Long Island, eldest of ten children; not to be confused with his father and first trainer, Howard Davis Sr. No edges: his Olympic teammates are not linked, as team membership alone is not a schema-legal person-to-person relationship in this packet. Photo: CLEARED, Public domain, 2009 photograph whose Commons file description names Howard Davis Jr. training Chuck Liddell.

Sources

• Olympedia. "Howard Davis, Jr." Olympedia.org. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
• Olympedia. "Lightweight (≤60 kilograms), Men — 1976 Summer Olympics." Olympedia.org. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
• BoxRec. "Howard Davis Jr." BoxRec Wiki. Accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)

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Record CTL-E-7108 · Combined Graph record U-07980 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources.
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