He participated at 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, where he lost to the eventual silver medalist Piotr Zaev in the quarter-finals. The following year he won the European Amateur Championships in Tampere. At the 1982 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Munich, he beat the legendary Teofilo Stevenson but lost to Tyrell Biggs in the final. In 1983 in Varna he became European champion for the second time, beating Ulli Kaden. He was ranked world's #1 super heavyweight by the AIBA in 1984 (ahead of Tyrell Biggs, who was ranked #2.) At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles he again lost to Biggs in the final, despite Biggs' home crowd booing at the judges decision who believed Damiani won the contest (since he threw more punches and was moving forward for most of the contest) which led to the leading BBC boxing commentator Harry Carpenter, who was commentating for the BBC sport Olympic coverage, to say that "..it the worst boxing decision in all my years of boxing commentating".