Ukraine’s Olexander Usyk slogged his way to Olympic heavyweight boxing gold on Saturday, winning a bruising final against Italy's Clemente Russo.
Usyk, the No. 1 seed, repeated his world championship final victory over the Beijing silver medalist to take the sport's top prize by 14 points to 11.
It was Russo who took a cautious opening round 3-1 after landing more accurately.
But Usyk came back fiercely in the second with a knockdown to level it at 8-8 going into the final round.
The Ukrainian pounded his opponent in the final round to take it 6-3 and guarantee gold.
Bulgaria’s Tervel Pulev and Teymur Mammadov of Azerbaijan lost to the two finalists in Friday's semifinal to each take a bronze medal home.
