Ukrainian world No. 1 Taras Shelestyuk and Russia’s Andrey Zamkovoy won bronze in the men’s welterweight boxing Friday after they were defeated in the semifinals.
Britain’s Freddie Evans will meet Kazakhstan’s Serik Sapiyev in Saturday’s final, pitting European champion Evans against the world championship silver medalist.
Evans shocked Shelestyuk with an 11-10 win, holding off a third-round fightback from the world champion.
The Welshman took the opening round 4-1 and held on against tougher resistance in a second round that was scored 4-4.
Evans did just enough in the third round to hold on to victory as the judges scored it 5-3 in Shelestyuk’s favor.
Zamkovoy and Sapiyev’s fight was a rematch of their meeting in the 2009 world championships, which the Russian won before going on to lose in the final, but this time the Kazakh fighter triumphed 18-12.
Sapiyev is an experienced fighter who won the world title in 2005 and 2007 at light welterweight before stepping up a weight class, where he reached last year’s world championship final.
The Kazakh took advantage of a slow start from Zamkovoy to win the first round 6-2 before the Russian got into the fight in the second round, taking it 6-4.
Sapiyev went up a gear in the third round to win 8-4.
