Amateur boxing is practised at the collegiate level, at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games, and in many other venues sponsored by amateur boxing associations. Amateur boxing bouts are short in duration and fighters wear head protection, so this type of competition prizes point-scoring (based on number of clean punches landed) rather than physical power. Bouts comprise three rounds of three minutes in men, and four rounds of two minutes in women, each with a one-minute interval between rounds.

Men's senior bouts changed in format from four, two minute rounds to three, three minute rounds on January 1, 2009.

Competitors wear protective headgear and gloves with a white strip across the knuckle. A punch is considered a scoring punch only when the boxers connect with the white portion of the gloves. Each punch that lands on the head or torso is awarded a point. A referee monitors the fight to ensure that competitors use only legal blows (a belt worn over the torso represents the lower limit of punches - any boxer repeatedly landing "low blows" is disqualified). Referees also ensure that the boxers don't use holding tactics to prevent the opponent from swinging (if this occurs, the referee separates the opponents and orders them to continue boxing. Repeated holding can result in a boxer being penalized, or ultimately, disqualified). Referees will stop the bout if a boxer is seriously injured, if one boxer is significantly dominating the other or if the score is severely imbalanced. Bouts which end this way may be noted as "RSC" (referee stopped contest) with notations for an outclassed opponent (RSCO), outscored opponent (RSCOS), injury (RSCI) or head injury (RSCH).

Guillermo Rigondeaux Ortiz (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡiˈʎermo riɣonˈdo]; born September 30, 1980 in Santiago de Cuba) is a Cuban boxer who won the gold medal at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics in the Bantamweight (54 kg) class. Rigondeaux is a seven-time (2000–06) Cuban national champion at bantamweight. He currently claims an amateur record of nearly 400 fights with twelve losses; with his last losses coming to Rencise Perez and Bekzat Sattarkhanov in 1998, Waldemar Font in 1999, and his most recent loss against Aghasi Mammadov in 2003. After his defection in 2009, he turned professional. He is the current WBA Super Bantamweight Champion. Guillermo Rigondeaux is widely considered to be one of the greatest amateur fighters of all time.

Filmmaker Brin-Jonathan Butler is making a documentary about Rigondeaux.

2000

2004

On July 22, 2007, Rigondeaux and teammate Erislandy Lara failed to appear for their scheduled bouts at the Pan American Games in Brazil. It was initially announced that Rigondeaux was to turn professional, joining fellow 2004 Cuban Olympians Odlanier Solis, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Yan Barthelemy, who defected earlier in 2007. As with the other Cuban defectors, Rigondeaux signed a promotional deal with Ahmet Oener and ARENA Box-Promotion. However on August 2, Rigondeaux and Lara were taken into police custody in Brazil, stating that they wanted to return home to Cuba. Then Cuban leader Fidel Castro has stated that Rigondeaux and Lara will not box again for the Cuban team. In February 2009, Rigondeaux defected again via Mexico City to Miami, and signed with Arena Box-Promotion.