The men's freestyle light heavyweight competition at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome took place from 1 to 6 September at the Basilica of Maxentius.

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

[2] This freestyle 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, though adjusted the point values slightly.

The bronze medal bout ended in a tie, so body weight was used to determine the winner.

Atlı defeated Takhti in the final, giving the Turkish wrestler the gold medal regardless of points.