Appalling judging awards Tishchenko heavyweight gold.

In a baffling turn of events, Russia's Evgeny Tishchenko took a unanimous decision over Kazakhstan's Vassiliy Levit in the heavyweight final tonight.  The aggressive Levit took the fight to the taller Tishchenko pushing the Russian onto the back foot throughout..  In a first round that looked Levit's round across the board a single judge gave Tishchenko the round..  Levit piled on more pressure in the second, hardly allowing Tishchenko space to breath, the Russian now bleeding from a cut around the hairline, neglecting his usually effective southpaw jab, going into survival mode..  Astonishingly every judge was this a Tishchenko round, a round that was so obviously dominated by the Kazakh..  The final round saw Tishchenko running on empty, midway through the round the Russian collapsing to the floor from the constant pressure being applied by the busier Levit, moments later the Russian escaped the onslaught as his corner was allowed to tend a cut around Tishchenkos eye..   As the action resumed, Levit once again forced the helpless Russian back into the ropes, flailing shots until the final bell..  It did seem that Vassiliy Levit had grabbed the gold, however several minutes later it became apparent how inept the judges had gauged such an important fight..    Tishchenko awarded the heavyweight gold medal by unanimous decision amidst a hail of disapproving boos...   Most everyone in commentary along with impartial bystanders saw Levit a comfortable victor..  

The gold medal is anyone's at Superheavy.. It's open house.

This years Olympic super-heavyweight boxing tournament is by no means cut and dried, with four of the final 8 fighters capable on any given day of beating the rest..  Top of the standings is the tournaments favourite, Frenchman Tony Yoka, who has proven over the last 4 years, exactly why he is so highly seeded... Yoka has faced most of the guys in his bracket in previous tournaments, most notably GBs Joe Joyce, with both fighters sharing victories in their two meetings..  Yoka looked the most complete of this years competitors in his only bout so far, outboxing the huge Virgin Islander Laurent Clayton Jr..   High on anyone's list of possible gold medalists has to be the world number 1 ranked Ivan Dychko..  The 6 foot 9 Kazakh, overcame the rugged Magomed Medzhidov in his first bout, a fight unfortunately cut short on the advice of the ringside physicist following a thumb in the Azerbaijan fighters eye, Dychko had previously been knocked out by Medzhidov and was looking for revenge..  A highly touted medalist, Dychko will have to fight out of his skin to make the finals..  Dychko faces huge punching wildcard Efe Ajagba of Nigeria in tomorrow's quarters, a fight of huge importance..  Third on my list of possibles is the tough, hard punching Joe Joyce of Great Britain..  This is Joyce's first Olympics, but having faced most all of his fellow competitors, the huge Brit won't be phased by the occasion. In his only bout of the games Joyce showed immense power in stopping Cape Verdes Davilson Morais inside a round..  Joyce has beaten both Yoka and the Pero in WSB bouts, outpointing the Cuban in his own back yard in Havana..  Joe is the most proficient of the list, he lacks finesse, but makes up for it with determination, Joe has sparred consistently with IBF world heavyweight Champion going back as far as AJs 2012 success, the kind of valuable experience that could carry Joyce as an outsider, towards gold..  Joe faces the Uzbekistan representative in the quarters, Jalolov, a tall rangy boxer with little power, a foe that shouldn't pose too much of a threat to the Londoner..  
The wildcard goes to Nigerias Efe Ajagba, who's single appearance so far has produced the knockout of tournament, wiping out Trinidad and Tobagos Nigel Paul inside a round on Saturday..  Ajagba is tall, powerful, mobile and possesses the tools to trouble anyone in his Olympic path, Ajagba faces world number 1 Ivan Dychko in the quarters, but in all honestly has nothing to lose..  
Cuban Lenier Pero is still in contention, beating the Italian Vianello in his second round bout, to secure his quarter final spot against the Croatian Filip Hrgovic..  Pero is useful, but not the invincible force you'd usually expect of the Cuban squad..  Olympic Superheavyweight champions usually go on to professional success, a springboard to limitless financial gains, there is a lot more than medals at stake and success could be anyone's..

Vassiliy Levit upsets Erislandy Savon, books his place in the heavyweight final.

In the Olympic heavyweight semi finals tonight, number 7 ranked Vassiliy Levit pulled the upset by beating the betting gold medal favourite, Cuban Erislandy Savon, to secure his place in the final...  The rangy Savon started the bout boxing at long range, keeping the Kazakh fighter on the end of the jab, Levit did close the gap towards the end of the first round but it seemed as though Savon had bossed the opener.  Round two however was a different story, Levit drawing Savon into a brawl, closing the gap and scoring frequently at close range..  The scoring after 2 rounds slightly favoured Levit by scores of 20 20 19, the single point deficit from some curious judging of round 1..   Going into the final 3 minutes, the place in the final was anyone's, but it seemed that Savons unwillingness to let his hands go on the inside, paired with his lack of urgency when it mattered lost him the bout..  Vassiliy Levit winning a majority decision..     Levit now meets the Russian Evgeny Tishchenko in the battle for gold..

Joe Joyce scores first round stoppage in Olympic debut.

Great Britains superheavyweigt representative Joe Joyce made a sensational debut appearance at his first Olympics with a one round stoppage of Cape Verde's Davilson Morais, tonight..   Joyce came out wild from the start, trying too hard to stamp his authority on his first appearance of the tournament..   Midway into the round however Joyce landed the cleaner shots in a close exchange causing the referee to allow Morais' corner take a look at a possible eye injury, with a minute left in the round Joyce caught Morais once again with a hurtful right hand that forced a standing count, the game African walked straight back into a Joyce onslaught, Joe over eagerly smothering his own shots but finally finding an overhand right to drop Morais, closing the show with seconds left in the round..
Joyce will now face Bakhodir Jalolov of Uzbekistan in the final 8..

Nigerian nightmare Efe Ajagba scores one punch knockout to land himself a place in the 91+ quarters.

Nigerians sole boxing representative Efe Ajagba stormed through to the Superheavyweight quarter finals tonight with a first round one punch knockout of Trinidad and Tobago's Nigel Paul..  The 22 year old Ajagba is ranked number 9 in the world and showed the kind of power that has put him there. Boxing at long range behind the jab for most of the round until the opening presented itself. Paul who is ranked at 22 looked to be holding his own until the tall Nigerian, very reminiscent of their 1996 Olympian Duncan Dokiwari, dropped a lethal right hand with just 18 seconds left in the first round..  Ajagba now faces world number 1 Ivan Dychko in the last 8..  Dychko scoring a revenge victory over Magomed Medzhidov of Azerbaijan, who had twice previously beaten the kazakh fighter.

French Superheavy Tony Yoka moves into last 8 with victory over Laurent Clayton jr.

French Superheavyweight favourite Tony Yoka scored a decisive points victory over US Virgin Islander Laurent Clayton Jr. Clayton who is the stepson of former world middleweight champion Julian Jackson had previously scored an upset over experienced German Erik Pfeifer and looked competent in doing so.. Yoka however was a different challenge, a mobile boxer puncher who barely allowed Clayton to land cleanly..   Yoka has solid company in his weight category and won't find everyone as agreeable as Clayton jr, with Joe Joyce making his first appearance tonight against Cape Verde's Davilson Morais and Cuba's Lenier Pero already through to the quarters..  Yoka will now face Hussein Iashaish of Jordan to earn his place in on the podium..

Cuba's Lenier Pero beats Italy's Guido Vianello for a place in the 91+ quarters.

Cuban Superheavyweight Lenier Pero advances into the quarter finals tonight after a fairly one sided victory over the tall awkward Guido Vianello of Italy. Vianello looked impressive in his pre Olympic qualifying bouts in Baku, but couldn't find the remedy for the shorter southpaw on this occasion..  Pero is efficient in his work rate and kept the taller man off balance for most of the first round..   Both men's styles clashed during most of the bout, Pero throwing calculated counters as Vianello launched the wilder shots from range, the Cuban catching Vianello half way through the round with a single clean shot that forced a standing count, a chance for the exhausted Italian to catch his breath..  Pero did allow the desperate Vianello some success in the third, the trailing Italian looking to set up some heavy artillery on the illusive Cuban, but as time ticked by, Pero took further advantage of the tiring Vianello, winning all three rounds clearly..   Pero isn't the most dominant of the Cuban fighters, losing to both Fraser Clarke and Joe Joyce of team GB in recent tournaments..  But he showed intelligent skills tonight to beat the game Italian..

47 year old Roy Jones Jr, returns tonight in Pensacola.

Former world champion Roy Jones Jr. (63-9, 46 KOs) returns to the ring tonight at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Florida. The 47-year-old Jones will take on 40-year-old Rodney Moore (17-11-2, 7 KOs) in what will be his 73rd professional fight..  Jones said that as long as he keeps winning, he will continue to keep fighting..  Moore has had a mixed career, his last meaningful win was back in 2002 when he stopped Donnell Wiggins for the NABA light heavyweight title..  Since then Rodney has had only 9 fights in 13 years, all losses, at the hands of previous foe Wiggins, Andrey Fedesov, Danny Batchelder, George Khalid Jones and Quantis Graves, all by decision, he was knocked out last year by Murat Gassiev in California, and beaten on points more recently by Mike Bissett in February..   Roy acknowledges that Moore has decent power and kept respectful company at one point in his career, but really doesn't see Moore as any kind of threat to his travelling circus..

Juanma Lopez v Wilfredo Vasquez jr... October 8th..

In a clash of former world champions, Juan Manuel Lopez (34-5, 31 KOs) faces Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr (24-6-1, 19 KOs) in what is escalating into a grudge match on October 8 at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Lopez's 30 fight Unbeaten run was halted in 2011 by Orlando Salido via tko, a year later Salido handed the southpaw his second career defeat, again by stoppage..  Since then Lopez has lost a further 3 of his last 6 bouts, all stoppages at the hands of the respectable Mikey Garcia, Francisco Vargas and more recently to Jesus Cuellar in his last appearance back in 2014. The 33 year old acknowledges the fact that he has suffered some bad knockout of late, but feels that the two years out of the ring have allowed him to focus on getting back to where he once was..
Wilfredo Vasquez jr also had his unbeaten run broken in 2011, a stoppage loss at the hands of Jorge Arce, and like Lopez, he'd go on to suffer further setbacks, alternate defeats at the hands of Nonito Donaire, Yasutaka Ishimoto, Marvin Sonsona and Fernando Vargas, all by the slimmest of decisions..   Vasquez's recent outing against Rafael Rivera in December was again a heartbreaking split decision loss in a challenge for the WBC Fecarbox title in Florida..  Both guys have points to prove in this match with Puerto Rican machismo on the line as well as a step back onto the world stage for the victor..  Both guys have faced opponents with the highest pedigree as champions and both know exactly what it took to get there..

GB light heavyweight Joshua Buatsi moves into the quarter finals with second stoppage victory..

Great Britains Olympic light heavyweight hopeful Joshua Buatsi secures himself a place in the Rio quarter finals after his second knockout win in a row..  Buatsi got off to a flying start with his third round stoppage of Sweden's Kennedy Katende in his opener, tonight Joshua faced a sterner opponent on the form of 30 year old world ranked Elshod Rasulov of Uzbekistan. Buatsi boxed impressively, dominating the first two rounds before dropping the demoralised Rasulov with a right hand in the third, the Uzbek fighter climbed gamely off the floor but fell again whilst attempting to hold Buatsi, moments later a left, right, left combination knocked Rashulov down again, this time for good..   

Buatsi will box Algeria's Abdelhafid Benchabla in the 81kgs quarter-final on Sunday

Erislandy Savon and Vassiliy Levit move on to the 91kilo semis.

In the heavyweight quarter finals, World Number 6 seed Vassiliy Levit of Kazakstan boxed carefully in the early goings, intelligently fencing the aggressive number 7 ranked Kennedy St Pierre of Mauritius to take a decisive first session..  The usually animated St Pierre began to look pedestrian in the second, an easy target for the more polished Levit..  Both guys having success, but the kazakh fighter landing more frequently..   St Pierre notably behind on points began the final round aggressively, winging shots at the tiring Levit, in desperation..  Both fighters finished strongly to close out a relatively one sided bout..   Levit moving on to the semis.

The other quarter final saw the Cuban favourite Erislandy Savon wasting no time, letting the bombs go against two time Argentinian Olympian Yamil Peralta Jara..  Weathering the storm Jara found sporadic success with right hand counters, but the constant pressure from the crafty Cuban earned him the first two rounds decisively..  The final stanza saw Jara hurt frequently by huge right hands from Savon, attempting to trade, the Argentinian found himself out of his depth..   Savon breezing through to the medal stages, unanimously..

Savon will meet Levit in the first guaranteed medal round on Saturday..