Olympic Boxing 2016: Medal Winners, Scores and Friday's Results

Friday's boxing slate at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro set up several gold-medal matches and handed out one such prize, as France's Estelle Mossely defeated China's Yin Junhua by split decision in the women's lightweight gold-medal bout. 

The rest of the day featured semifinal contests in men's flyweight, men's light welterweight, men's super heavyweight and women's middleweight.  

American Claressa Shields, who won a gold medal in women's middleweight at the 2012 Summer Games, continued her quest for a second consecutive trip to the top of the podium with a dominant win over Kazakhstan's Dariga Shakimova.

NBC Olympics shared some highlights from Shields' victory: 

Just two days removed from the International Boxing Association's decision to dismiss a number of judges and referees, Friday's boxing action in Rio saw mostly straightforward action and results, though France's Tony Yoka's unanimous-decision win over Croatia's Filip Hrgovic in one of two men's super heavyweight finals drew the ire of boxer B.J. Flores and Bad Left Hook:

However, Greg Beacham of the Associated Press didn't seem to find the decision particularly controversial:

Here's a look at the day's results and recap:

Weight Class	Round	Matchup	Winner
Men's flyweight	Semifinal	Shakhobidin Zoirov (Uzbekistan) vs. Yoel Segundo Finol (Venezuela)	Zoirov (3-0)
Men's flyweight	Semifinal	Misha Aloian (Russia) vs. Hu Jianguan (China)	Aloian (3-0)
Men's light welterweight	Semifinal	Vitaly Dunaytsev (Russia) vs. Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (Uzbekistan)	Gaibnazarov (2-1)
Men's light welterweight	Semifinal	Lorenzo Sotomayor (Azerbaijan) vs. Artem Harutyunyan (Germany)	Sotomayor (3-0)
Men's super heavyweight	Semifinal	Tony Yoka (France) vs. Filip Hrgovic (Croatia)	Yoka (2-1)
Men's super heavyweight	Semifinal	Joe Joyce (Great Britain) vs. Ivan Dychko (Kazakhstan)	Joyce (3-0)
Women's middleweight	Semifinal	Claressa Shields (United States) vs. Dariga Shakimova (Kazakhstan)	Shields (3-0)
Women's middleweight	Semifinal	Li Qian (China) vs. Nouchka Fontijn (Netherlands)	Fontijn (2-1)
Women's lightweight	Gold Medal	Estelle Mossely (France) vs. Yin Junhua (China)	Mossely (2-1)

Women's Lightweight

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Mossely looked the better fighter in the first round against Yin, with the latter forced to hold on several occasions. However, all three judges gave the first to Yin. Mossely was even better in the second, convincing one judge to give her the round, but she was nevertheless behind on the cards halfway through the bout. 

Mossely upped the intensity in the third round, forcing Yin onto her back foot and into the ropes. The aggression from Mossely appeased the judges, as all three gave her the third frame. 

The fourth saw both fighters go for broke. Mossely stunned Yin with a minute to go in the round, forcing her to hold on for a moment and regain her composure.

Knowing the fight was getting away from her, Yin tried to come back with some flurries of her own, but Mossely dodged the best punches and did well to win the bout in a tense split decision.

Women's Middleweight

Shields outclassed Shakimova at every turn in the first women's middleweight semifinal. She dodged punch after punch with deft head movement, doubled up on her jab with ease and landed hooks to the head in precise, rhythmic fashion.

One judge actually gave Shakimova the third round over Shields, but it was merely a blip on the way to a convincing win for the 21-year-old from Flint, Michigan. Shields' powerful blows even forced the referee to give Shakimova a standing eight-count in the fourth round, though the result was already well in hand.

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Shields is the heavy favorite to win the gold, and she's carried herself with utmost confidence in Rio. Per Beacham, Shields felt she could have finished off Shakimova but chose not to: 

Nouchka Fontijn of Netherlands defeated Li Qian of China in the other women's middleweight semifinal, earning a date with Shields on Sunday. While Fontijn did well to overcome some early adversity, she didn't show anything to suggest that she will be capable of upsetting Shields in the gold-medal bout.

  
Men's Flyweight

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

The first men's flyweight semifinal on Friday saw Uzbekistan's Shakhobidin Zoirov befuddle Venezuela's Yoel Segundo Finol at nearly every turn. The rare southpaw vs. southpaw matchup was entirely one-sided, with Zoirov's head movement making it difficult for Finol to find his target, which allowed the Uzbek fighter to counter with some stinging right hands.

Russia's Misha Aloian's win over China's Hu Jianguan was a much closer, more cautious affair. Aloian got the better of most of the bigger exchanges thanks to quicker hands, but Hu seemed to close the gap toward the end of the fight. However, it wasn't enough to erase the good work done by Aloian in the first two rounds.
      

Men's Light Welterweight

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Not long after Zoirov's comprehensive win, Uzbekistan put a second fighter into a gold-medal bout when Fazliddin Gaibnazarov earned a split-decision win over Russia's Vitaly Dunaytsev. There was little to separate the two fighters at any point in the match, as both got in some good shots to the head and body.

Gaibnazarov convinced one judge to go his way in the first and seemed to do a bit more in the third, as Bad Left Hook and Fight Ghost noted:

It was enough to get Gaibnazarov the result, leaving Dunaytsev to fall to his knees in despair upon hearing his opponent's name called as the winner.

The bout between Lorenzo Sotomayor, a Cuban-born boxer who is fighting for Azerbaijan, and Artem Harutyunyan of Germany was a lopsided contest in the former's favor.

The tall, lanky Sotomayor used his superior reach and height to stymie Harutyunyan's advances. He was content to plant himself in the center of the ring and whale away at the German with two- and three-punch combos, earning a shot at a gold medal and leaving Harutyunyan to pick up the bronze.

Men's Super Heavyweight

Though Yoka cut the trimmer, more impressive figure than Hrgovic, it didn't mean the latter would turn out to be a punching bag. Beacham noted the two traded haymakers in the first: 

After an entertaining first round, Yoka (who happens to be dating Mossely) used more movement in the second, but the Croatian still landed some heavy blows to the head. Yoka didn't seem to land quite as much, but his style was at least more eye-catching than that of the lumbering Hrgovic, which might have swayed the judges.

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Hrgovic did well to take advantage when Yoka appeared to hurt his ankle on a slip midway through the third round, but the judges thought Yoka did enough to hold on for a win.

In the other semifinal, Joe Joyce of Great Britain defeated Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan in a close contest. The two boxers split the first two rounds evenly, putting everything up for grabs in the third. Joyce had more left in the tank in the third and took the fight.

Yoka and Mossely can establish themselves as quite the boxing power couple should the former defeat Joyce in the gold-medal bout on Sunday. He'll have to put in a better showing than he did against Hrgovic, as Joyce showed he can take some punches and grind out a victory.