Cuba’s Yasnier Toledo Lopez and Lithuania’s Evaldas Petrauskas won bronze at the Olympics in the men’s lightweight boxing Friday as a result of losing their semifinals.
Their victorious opponents, Ukraine’s Vasyl Lomachenko and South Korea’s Han Soonchul, will battle for the gold in Saturday’s final.
The semifinals saw two even fights, with none of the boxers knocked down.
Han beat Petrauskas 18-13, scraping past the Lithuanian by one-point margins in the opening two rounds before a more dominant performance gave him the third round 7-4.
Lomachenko’s bout with Toledo Lopez, a rematch of last year’s world championship final, was just as evenly matched, with the Ukrainian winning 14-11 to repeat his victory for the world title.
The first round was tied 3-3 before Lomachenko edged the Cuban 6-4 and 5-4 in the second and third.
