Controversy strikes in heavyweight gold medal fight

Russia’s Evgeny Tishchenko won the Olympic heavyweight boxing gold medal to a chorus of boos on Monday after beating Kazakhstan’s Vasily Levit 3-0 on points.

He was booed at the medal ceremony by the crowd, while Levit was cheered by those who felt he had been harshly treated.

“I am really upset about this because I respect my opponent and the crowd, but I don’t know why they booed in that outrageous way”.

The underdog chose a great time to finally get the better of Taylor, going toe to toe with the champion and Ecuadorean judge Clemente Carrillo made the decision to award her the fight after initially scoring it 38-38.

“There is a solidarity between fighters and I think that every boxer that comes to the ring deserves respect”, said the Kazakh.

“In my head I thought I had won and the coaches were quite happy with me and told me I did everything in the program for the fight, but you saw how it ended up”.

“If the judges gave me the medal, they had reasons for it”, he said, speaking through a translator.

Fans have made plain their feelings on the decision to let 271 of Russia’s 389 athletes compete despite a report accusing the country of “state-sponsored doping”.

Both men hit out wildly, with Tishchenko slipping on the canvas and momentarily losing his balance as they grappled.

Tishchenko suffered a cut to the top of his forehead, giving him a badly needed breather as he had lengthy treatment from the doctors with a minute left in the round. Potkonen had never beaten Taylor, so there were few who would have given the 35-year-old Finn much chance of winning the opening bout of the day.