Rio 2016 Updates

Shields makes boxing history, Yoka takes super-heavyweight gold

Middleweight Claressa Shields became the first American boxer to successfully defend an Olympic title and Tony Yoka was crowned super-heavyweight champion on the final day of the Rio Games.

Shields struck gold at the age of 17 in the 2012 London Games and outclassed Nouchka Fontijn of the Netherlands to claim a unanimous decision in the 69-75kg category final at Riocentro - Pavilion 6 on Sunday.

Frenchman Yoka is now Olympic and world champion after beating Great Britain’s Joe Joyce in the super heavyweight showdown.

Yoka labelled Joyce a “robot” and said the Englishman was “scared” of him ahead of their bout, but was pushed all the way in the final fight of the Games before he was given the verdict on a split decision.

The 24-year-old can now look forward to another day to remember - as he will marry fellow French boxer Estelle Mossely - who took the women’s Olympic lightweight title on her birthday on Friday - after the Games.

Uzbekistan finished on a high, with Shakhobidin Zoirov beating Misha Aloian to take men’s flyweight gold before Fazliddin Gaibnazarov took the men’s light welterweight title at the expense of Lorenzo Sotomayor Collazo of Azerbaijan.

 

HIGHLIGHT

Shields was a cut above once again as she took her record as an amateur to 77 victories and just one defeat, with her only loss coming back in 2012.

The 21-year-old from Michigan took gold in London as a teenager and went back-to-back with a dominant 40-36 39-37 39-37 victory over Dutch fighter Fontijn.

Fontijn connected occasionally, but two-time world champion Shields just had too much for the 28-year-old, showing great speed and timing with her punches to claim a second gold medal.

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“The last round was like, ‘Hey, you want to fight, you think you can beat me, okay let’s go’. She’s powerful and I’m like, ‘What you going to do about that?’.” - Shields clearly held no fears that Fontijn could force a late stoppage.

“I thought I might have won it but I didn’t. I haven’t seen the scores but I knew she was the world and Olympic champion so I knew I had to actually deliver twice as many punches to get the decision and I didn’t do it enough.” - Fontijn reflects on having to settle for silver.

“Joe didn’t do anything wrong. The guy threw so many punches, he worked like a horse, he worked, he worked. I don’t see where he went wrong. He did everything he could. Joe won on my scorecard. I looked at the aggressive nature of Joe, the combination punches. The style he’s got is hard to be denied.” Anthony Joshua, the 2012 super-heavyweight Olympic champion, on his friend Joyce’s defeat.

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