By Jake Donovan

And that’s that.

Reigning world amateur heavyweight champion Clemente Russo put the final nail in the coffin of Team USA, as Deontay Wilder dropped a 7-1 decision to the Italian in Friday afternoon’s semi-final match at the Workers’ Indoor Arena in Beijing, China.

The credentials told the entire story in what was the final bout of the afternoon session. The inexperienced Wilder, with less than 30 amateur fights going in, seemed confused for much of the fight while Russo controlled the real estate.

The fight was close for the first half of the bout, but only because neither fighter was landing much of anything. Russo scored a point early in the fight, a lead that would forever hold up as Wilder failed to effectively use his reach to keep the Italian within desired punching range.

“I was waiting on him to come in, but it didn’t work out that way,” Wilder would say afterward.

It certainly didn’t happen in the third round, when Russo enjoyed his best round of the fight. The 1-0 score quickly expanded to a 4 point deficit, create a tremendous sense of urgency for Team USA in the final round.

“You can’t let this slip away,” urged team trainer Dan Campbell in between rounds, offering words of inspiration, but little of the technical variety.

Wilder’s problem wasn’t motivation, but more so the lack of a fundamental strategy. The 6’7” heavyweight has made a habit of coming from behind to win several bouts in his brief amateur career, including the Olympic qualifying tournament as well as his quarterfinals win over Mohamed Arjaoui earlier this week.

The main ingredient in the aforementioned bouts was missing tonight - the long right hand that has often followed his telephone pole jab. It was instead one punch at a time all afternoon, enabling Russo to dart in and out at will.

The right hand that was needed the most wouldn’t come until very late in the fight, scoring his first and only point coming with less than 30 seconds to go in the fight. Much too little, much too late, as it merely disrupted a shutout.

Russo had already tacked on three more points in the round, all in a span of less than 20 seconds. The myth that combination punching went unrecognized by the judges was disproved when the Italian exploded late in the fight, landing several jabs and right hands upstairs as Wilder remained defenseless.

Wilder’s aforementioned scoring right hand was the final scoring point of the fight, as well as the final score for Team USA in the 2008 Olympics. Russo danced around the ring for the final few seconds, right hand partially raised in celebration as he moved side to side until the final bell, at which point the two fighters embraced.

It’s the end of the road for Wilder and the USA boxing squad, a team that produced the worst ever medal turnout in its long storied Olympic history. The one medal obtained matched the 1948 squad, though they managed to score a silver medal; Wilder’s departure leaves this year’s crop with a single Bronze medal.

Turmoil and controversy surrounded this year’s crew, though the 6’7” Wilder was often seen as the glue that held the team together. Though the least experienced, he would become the makeshift leader, which in turn led to his being the lone American to medal.

The standard response for most of the USA boxing squad after a loss was to pitch a bitch about something, be it the Olympic style of scoring or Campbell’s coaching methods.

Wilder did neither. He instead kept it humble and kept it real, never losing sight of the dream run he was able to experience.  

“All of my opponents had way more experience,” gleefully acknowledged the former Tuscaloosa (AL) Central HS football standout.  “The whole idea was to have fun; I did.”

The idea for the future is to provide America something it’s sorely lacking in the pro ranks.

“You haven’t seen the last of Deontay Wilder,” he insisted. When asked what we can expect to see in his future, he responded, “You’ll see the heavyweight champion of the world.”

Meanwhile, current amateur heavyweight champion of the world Russo advances to the Gold medal round. Awaiting him is the man he defeated to win the aforementioned title, Russia’s Rakhim Chakhkeiv, who outpointed Osmay Acosta 10-5.

The two fought on even terms for most of the first two rounds before Chakhkeiv scored a point late in the second to lead 3-2. The Russian exploded from there, scoring three straight points in the third to build what would become an insurmountable lead.

Acosta’s exit left Team Cuba 2-2 in the afternoon portion of the semi-finals. They still have four more chances to upgrade to silver or gold, but for the moment are left with at least two bronze medals. Acosta’s loss came on the heels of light welterweight Roniel Iglesias succumbing to 2004 Olympic Gold medalist Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand, 10-5.

No surprise in that outcome, other than seeing a Cuban boxer lose a rare bout in the 2008 Games. Far more shocking was the bout that would produce Boonjumnong’s Gold medal round opponent, as Dominican Republic’s Maneul Felix Diaz pulled a rabbit out of a hat, rallying all the way back to outlast heavily favored Alexis Vastine of France for a 12-10 win.

Vastine lead the entire fight, with a 3-2 lead becoming as great as 7-2 midway through the third round. A two-point warning for holding narrowed the Frenchman’s lead to three, but would leave the round up 9-6.

Diaz faced a major uphill climb in the final round, but never wilted. Two quick points brought the Dominican within one before Vastine scored with a right hand to lead by two with about a minute remaining. The southpaw Diaz scored twice with the left, the second tying up the score before a huge break would provide him with the lead and the final margin of victory.

Another two-point holding foul warning came with just 19 seconds remaining. Vastine dropped to his knees in disbelief, realizing he needed to make up the difference in a hurry. It never happened;  Diaz darted around the ring and tying up the Frenchman just enough to minimize his scoring opportunities in preserving the win.

Diaz is now the first ever Dominican boxer to compete for a Gold medal.

Andry Laffita was one of two winning Cuban fighters on the afternoon, advancing to the Gold medal round after edging out Russia’s Georgy Balakshin 9-8. It was the second time in as many Olympics that Balakshin was eliminated by a Cuban, suffering a stoppage loss to eventual Gold medalist Yuriorkis Gamboa in the 2004 Games.

The 30-year old Laffita will now face 33-year old Somjit Jongjohor of Thailand in the finals. Jongjohor insisted earlier this year that he would retire after this year’s  Olympics. He now gets a chance to go out with a bang after cruising to a 7-1 win over Italy’s Vincenzo Picardi.

Joining Laffita in the finals is middleweight teammate Emilio Correa, who ousted India’s Vijender Kumar 8-5. Kumar became the only boxer in the history of his country to capture an Olympic boxing medal, but was no match for the Cuban, despite the relatively close score.

An uphill battle awaits Correa in the finals, as he will face James Degale of Great Britain. The London middleweight advances after a surprisingly easy 10-3 win over longtime adversary Darren Sutherland of Ireland in the first of two Ireland-Great Britain matchups on the day.

The match was the sixth overall meeting between the two fighters. Sutherland won the first four fights, though Degale has won the two far more significant meets – first at the Olympic qualifier earlier this year and again Friday afternoon to qualify for the Gold medal round.

Degale was up 3-1 after two rounds before busting the fight wide open with a five point third. Missing was Sutherland’s usual ferocity that led to dominant wins in his two earlier Olympic bouts. A hint of it surfaced in the final round, landing a left hook that momentarily shook Degale. But Sutherland was down 10-3 at that point, in need of a knockout that never came.

A stoppage came in one of the two featherweight semi-final matches. Khedafi Djelkhir of France advances to the Gold medal round after scoring a second round injury stoppage win over Shahin Imranov of Azerbaijan.

Imranov, one of a handful of featherweights to succumb to Alexei Tishchenko in the 2004 Olympics,  trailed 5-2 after the opening round, but would never get a chance to play catch-up, as an elbow injury ended his night prior to the start of the second round. 

Djelkhir, who made it to the Round of 16 in the 2004 Olympics, now fights for Olympic Gold. Awaiting him in the finals is this year’s odds on favorite in the featherweight bracket, Ukraine’s Vasyl Lomachenko, who enjoyed his fourth straight blowout after a 10-1 drubbing of Turkey’s Yakup Kılıç.

Lomachenko never trailed in the bout, in fact threatening with a shutout before Kılıç got on board, scoring with a right hand late in the third for his only point. He was down 6-0 at that point, with Lomachenko adding two more points to his tally in the final 30 seconds of the third and scoring two more as well as a standing eight count in the last round to put the icing on the cake.

Twelve more bouts are scheduled for the evening portion of the semi-finals. All of the aforementioned winners in the Friday afternoon session return Saturday evening for Gold medal round matches, with the Friday evening winners to vie for Gold on Sunday afternoon.

Falling behind on your Olympic boxing intake? Catch up by clicking on the following link for the complete archive of Boxingscene.com’s unmatched Olympic coverage:

BOXINGSCENE.COM 2008 OLYMPIC BOXING CATALOG

Jake Donovan is a voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Comments/questions can be submitted to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .