Keyshawn Davis’ vision came true: He will face Andy Cruz of Cuba for the men’s lightweight gold medal.
Women’s middleweight (Semifinals)
Lauren Price (Great Britain) def. Nouchka Fontijn (Netherlands), 3:2: This wound up about as close as it gets on the cards. Personally, I thought Price should have just won this fight, flat-out; I agreed with the Korean judge who had it 29-27 Price, giving her all three rounds but having to dock a point for a penalty in round two. But two judges had it 29-27 for Fontijn, and the other two had it 28-28, meaning they had to pick a “preferred winner.” Both chose Price, as both had given Price two rounds and other than the deducted point, she would have been the winner. In a way makes you wonder what the point of the deduction really is, since here it wound up basically meaning nothing, but still, I think the winner is right. These two also had a controversial finals bout at the 2019 World Championships, where Fontijn was announced the winner and the Great Britain team protested and it was overturned. Fontijn won silver at Rio 2016, gets bronze here. Price goes on for gold.
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Li Qian (China) def. Zenfira Magomedalieva (Russian Olympic Committee), 5:0: Magomedalieva has been able to physically bully and spoil her way into the medal rounds, and fair enough, on some level, she did win those fights. She deserved them. But she ran into a wall here, as Li is not only much more skilled, but also not a small middleweight herself; not as big as Magomedalieva, but the Russian couldn’t push her around the way that benefits her, and Li’s superior speed and technique was thus too much. It was still an ugly fight, with both docked points in the second round, but it was really not competitive, either. Hard to argue a round for Magomedalieva, and none of the judges gave her one. It was 29-26 across the board.
Men’s lightweight (Semifinals)
Keyshawn Davis (United States) def. Hovhannes Bachkov (Armenia), 5:0: Need to stress that this was nowhere near as wide as the 5:0 seems. Have said that in a lot of fights, but here it was really nowhere near that, and there was a lot of nervousness before the winner was made official. Davis had a point docked in the second, and was down 19-18 on three cards going into the third round, up 19-18 on the other two. The third round seemed to be Davis’, but if you’ve watched enough Olympic boxing, you get a sense of when the judges might disagree, and there was the sense — with me at least — that Bachkov may have shown enough aggression and spoiled enough in the third to nick it on at least three cards. But all judges had the third for Davis. That meant he won two cards outright, 29-27, and the other three were 28-28, with all judges picking Davis as the preferred winner. He now goes on to fight for gold, the third American at these Olympics to do so. His bout will come Sunday, as will super heavyweight Richard Torrez Jr’s.
Andy Cruz (Cuba) def. Harry Garside (Australia), 5:0: Garside was not embarrassed here by any means, but it’s about levels, etc. The Cubans have a traditionally strong team in Tokyo, and Cruz might really be the best of the lot for where they all are in their careers, saying a lot because there are some terrific Olympic veterans still fighting at gold medal level on that squad. But Cruz is just so good. Garside plays flashy, he can be elusive, but Cruz was just beyond him, and the Cuban didn’t slow down with a big lead going into the third. If anything, that was his best round, forcing a standing eight count and dominating. Keyshawn Davis said before the tournament he’d be in the final, and he knew it would be Cruz on the other side. He was right.
Men’s heavyweight (FINAL)
Julio la Cruz (Cuba) def. Muslim Gadzhimagomedov (Russian Olympic Committee), 5:0: Full recap here.
