Brazil’s Yamaguchi Falcao Florentino and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gvozdyk took bronze in the men’s light heavyweight boxing Friday.
Russia’s Yegor Mekhontsev blitzed Falcao Florentino 23-11 and will now fight for the gold medal Saturday against Adilbek Niyazymbetov of Kazakhstan, who beat Gvozdyk on a countback tie-break.
Falcao Florentino had been aiming to emulate his brother Esquiva, who reached the middleweight final earlier in the day.
Mekhontsev attacked the Brazilian from the first bell and kept up the pressure throughout, winning the rounds 6-4, 9-4 and 8-3 as well as knocking Falcao Florentino down twice.
In the second semifinal, Niyazymbetov and Gvozdyk matched one another throughout, the first round scored event at 4-4 before the judges ruled Gvozdyk had won the second 6-5.
The third round was scored 4-3 in Niyazymbetov’s favor and he progressed to the final on countback.
