Wednesday 17 August 2016 17:17, UK
London light-heavyweight Joshua Buatsi will pick up a bronze medal after being outpointed by Adilbek Niyazymbetov at the Rio Olympics.
The wily Kazakh, who has two silver medals at world championships to his name by the age of 27, will now fight for the gold after using his movement and experience to send the 23-year-old Buatsi packing via a unanimous decision.
Buatsi illuminated the early part of the tournament with emphatic stoppages of Kennedy Katende and Elshod Rasulov and began brightly against Niyazymbetov with a trio of rights to the body followed by a left.
The pair then exchanged meaningful jabs with Niyazymbetov's perhaps looking the more impressive due to it being thrown off the back foot, but there was little doubt about the quality of an eye-catching left to the body that began to swing the fight his way.
The youngster renewed his efforts in the second as he surged forward again but he was struggling to deal with his opponent's use of distance, Niyazymbetov landing a cute left to the body and following it with another stiff, scoring jab shortly before needing his shoelace retied.
Buatsi's frustration was growing and he began complaining about holding before the round was out - a sign that he was not enjoying the officiating, which allowed Niyazymbetov to pot-shot off the back foot before lunging in to hold and deny Buatsi space to reply.
There was certainly reason for Buatsi to be annoyed in the third, when the tiring Niyazymbetov - presumably wary of the threat posed by an increasingly desperate Buatsi - was allowed to hold fairly blatantly. When he was shrugged away, the referee opted to issue a warning to the Briton for use of the shoulder.
One blazing right hand gave Team GB fans hope of a dramatic turn-around, but Niyazymbetov was quickly back out of range and even registered a lightning one-two to round off a clear-cut victory.
