Olympic boxing 2016 results: Claressa Shields advances to middleweight final

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Claressa Maria Shields of the United States advanced to the women’s middleweight finals at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Shields took another unanimous decision win in her semifinal matchup against Dariga Skaimova of Kazakhstan, and is set to face Nouchka Fontijn of The Netherlands, who took down Qian Li of China.

Shields and Fontijn will enter the ring on Sunday for the gold medal contest, the final day of this year’s Summer Olympics. Li and Shakimova took the bronze medals in that division.

“I know I made it look easy, but I did what I was supposed to do last night,” Shields said after the win in Brazil. “I ate and I drunk Powerade last night, a lot of water, and I slept. Today, when I got up, I just felt great. I just felt great today. I’m in the finals, but that’s not enough.”

Eyeing her second Olympic gold medal, Shields knows what to expect from Fontijn in the final bout.

“We just fought two months ago at the World Championships,” Shields said of her next opponent. “She’s a really great fighter, is very tall. I don’t think she has the tools to beat me, but I’m sure she’s worked on a few things, and I worked on a few things also, so I’m definitely going out there giving my 300 percent and hope she’s ready to give her 300 percent. You know, let the best woman win.”

Shields can make history in Rio de Janeiro if she wins her second gold medal in boxing, and turning professional next is only an option if the International Olympic Committee allows professional boxers to compete in the Games, just like they did with men’s boxing for this Olympics.

“If they allow professional women to come back and fight in the Olympics,” she said, “maybe I’ll go pro and I’ll come back and still fight in 2020 and 2024. But it depends.”

But aside from that pertinent Team USA news, the women’s lightweight gold medal match was held on Friday, featuring Yin of China and Estelle Mossely of France. That match ended in favor of Mossely, who earned the gold medal, with Yin taking home the silver for China.

Friday also featured semifinal matches in the men’s flyweight, light welterweight and super heavyweight divisions. In the fly, Shakobidin Zoirov of Uzbekistan downed Yoel Segundo Finol of Venezuela. Jianguan Hu of China fell to Misha Aloian of Russia in the other semifinal.

That gave Finol and Hu the bronze medals in that division, while Zoirov and Aloian will compete in the gold medal match.

Fazliddin Gaibnazarov took the first semifinal in the men’s light welterweight division and will face Lorenzo Sotomayor Collazo of Azerbaijan in the finals of that division. Vitaly Dunaytsev of Russia and Artem Harutyunuan of Germany took the bronze medals as losers in the two semifinal matches.

Finally, in the super heavyweight division, Tony Victor James Yoka of France took one semifinal, and will face Joe Joyce of Great Britain in the finals. Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan and Filip Hrgovic of Croatia won the bronze medals in that division.