By Scott Gilfoid: Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk defeated former 2008 Olympic Silver medalist Clemente Russo of Italy on Saturday to capture the 2012 Olympic heavyweight gold medal by a score of 14-11 in London, England.
Usyk initially had problems with the 30-year-old Italian’s unorthodox punching angles in the 1st round. Russo was able to land some nice shots in the round seemingly from all kinds of angles to come out ahead by the score of 3-1. However, the southpaw Usyk looked like a completely different fighter in the 2nd round as he opened up with countless left hands to the head and body of Russo.
At one point, Russo hit the deck at getting hit with a nice left to the head. The referee ruled it a slip, but it sure did look like a legitimate knockdown to me. Russo did a lot of holding in the round, putting Usyk in arm bars to keep him from punching. The holding was god awful to look at and I was wondering why the referee didn’t take some points away from Russo. At the end of the 2nd round the score was 7-5 in Usyk’s favor.
In the 3rd, the action was back and forth with both guys landing nice shots. But Usyk was a little busier with his shots in the last two minutes of the round and this enabled him to add to finish out on top by a 14-11 score. It was pretty close because Russo never gave up, but Usyk was just a little bit better.
In losing the fight, Russo collects his second Olympic heavyweight Silver medal.