Light heavyweight was the second-heaviest category, including wrestlers weighing 79 to 87 kilograms (174.2 to 191.8 lb).

[1][2] This Greco-Roman wrestling competition continued to use the "bad points" elimination system introduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics for Greco-Roman and at the 1932 Summer Olympics for freestyle wrestling, as modified in 1952 (adding medal rounds and making all losses worth 3 points—from 1936 to 1948 losses by split decision only cost 2).

This elimination continued until the medal rounds, which began when 3 wrestlers remained.

[2][1] Source: Official results[3][4][1] Atan withdrew due to injury after his bout.

Sirakov defeated Nilsson in a de facto silver medal bout.