Middleweight (69-75 kilograms), Men

The scheduled script for the Olympic middleweight class had been written well in advance of Tokyo. Bitter rivals Ukraine and Russia would fight it out for gold in the shape of the last two World Champions Oleksandr Khyzhniak and Gleb Bakshi. Most recently Khyzhniak had taken a controversial victory over Bakshi to win the European Qualifying event. Of course, that’s not quite how it played out.

At the top of the draw #1 seed Khyzhniak eased into the semi-finals but had all the trouble he could handle from the roughhouse Filipino Eumir Marcial. In the fight that gave rise to profoundly different opinions from the judges, the Ukrainian edged out a win by 3-2.

The big punching Bakshi had survived the best efforts of American based professionals Troy Isley and Darrelle Valsaint, Jr. to meet Hebert Conceição for a place in the final. For once, the Russian could not impose his physicality on the smoother boxing Brazilian and went down to a defeat on four of the five judges’ scorecards.

The tables were turned in the final. This time it was the skilful Khyzhniak who controlled the fight. The Ukrainian won the first two rounds conclusively but halfway through the final round, he dropped his guard for an instant. This gave the Brazilian the chance to land a perfectly delivered left hook that sent Khyzhniak to the canvas. Khyzhniak rose to his feet quickly, but the referee decided that he was in no position to continue the fight and gold went to Conceição.