This was the 25th appearance of the men's featherweight event. This event made the debut in 1904 and held every event in Olympic boxing (excluded from 1912) until 2008, In 2012 and 2016, there was no featherweight class, in 2020 the featherweight returned and bantamweight was eliminated. With no bantamweight, the lower end of the featherweight drops to 52 kg; the maximum remains 57 kg.
Like all Olympic boxing events, the competition was a straight single-elimination tournament. The competition began with a preliminary round, where the number of competitors was reduced to 16, and concluded with a final. As there were fewer than 32 boxers in the competition, a number of boxers received a bye through the preliminary round. Both semi-final losers were awarded bronze medals.
Bouts consisted of three three-minute rounds with a one-minute break between rounds. A boxer may win by knockout or by points. Scoring was on the "10-point-must," with five judges scoring each round. Judges consider "number of blows landed on the target areas, domination of the bout, technique and tactical superiority and competitiveness." Each judge determined a winner for each round, who received 10 points for the round, and assigned the round's loser a number of points between seven and nine based on performance. The judge's scores for each round were added to give a total score for that judge. The boxer with the higher score from a majority of the judges was the winner.[3]
