Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Towering Russian Evgeny Tishchenko added Rio Olympic gold to his world and European titles on Monday as he defeated Kazakhstan’s Vassiliy Levit in deeply controversial circumstances.
Loud boos rang out in the crowd after the announcement was made that the judges had surprisingly given Tishchenko the win on unanimous points, when most believed Levit had taken the fight.
Rustam Tulaganov of Uzbekistan and Cuba’s Erislandy Savon each took home bronze.
Tishchenko, the 25-year-old with piercing eyes, said last week that his build-up to the Games had been hampered by the uncertainty caused by Russia’s doping scandal, which meant he only knew for sure that he would be competing days before the Olympics.
The first round saw Tishchenko struggle to impose himself against the busier Levit, a former kickboxer and law student, who was trying to get inside the Russian at every opportunity to negate his longer reach.
It was more of the same in the second, with Tishchenko failing to get his jab going and Levit dictating the pace of the bout, although the Russian did finally let his hands go a little in the dying stages of the round.
The world champion went into the third round appearing to need the big knock-out and the lumbering duo exchanged hard hits at the start to get the crowd interested at last.
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.
But, to boos and loud jeers from the crowd, the judges gave the decision to the Russian, leaving Levit looking stupefied.
The crowd continued to boo as the boxers took to the podium, with Levit getting a huge roar as he wiped away tears.