Galal Yafai dug deep to end a 55-year drought for Great Britain.
In one of the best fights of Tokyo Olympics competition, Yafai outlasted Kazakhstan's Saken Bibossinov to advance to the men's flyweight final. Yafai forced a standing eight count in the opening round and powered his way to victory in an entertaining slugfest Thursday afternoon at Kokugikan Arena in Tokyo.
Yafai becomes the first British flyweight since 1956 to contend for a Gold medal.
Bibossinov was never going to make it easy, though his aggression hurt him early. Yafai caught the Kazakh boxer with a left hand, forcing a standing eight count and doing well enough in the rest of the round to take it 10-9 on all five cards.
Round two was non-stop action, with Yafai standing directly in the pocket. Bibossinov was right there with him, wading through a series of left hands to land several straight rights. Little separated the two, but with Bibossinov getting enough credit to make it anyone's fight heading into the third and final round.
Yafai closed the show in style, beating Bibossinov to the punch and playing enough defense to avoid getting caught with a dramatic shot to ruin his Gold medal dream. The youngest of the fighting Yafai family—including former WBA junior bantamweight champ Kal Yafai and bantamweight Gamal Yafai—is the third Brit to advance to the final round in Tokyo and the sixth overall to medal.
Yafai will now face Carlo Paalam, who aims to become the first boxer from the Philippines to win Gold. The free-swinging flyweight—one of three Filipinos to win a medal in Tokyo—is now in the final round after defeating Japan's Ryomei Tanaka.
Palaam won every round on every card, with scores of 30-27 across the board. He now joins Nesthy Petecio in guaranteeing at least two Silver medals for the Philippines, though with the chance to bring home the nation's first ever Gold in boxing.
Tanaka—whose younger brother Kosei is an active pro flyweight and former three-division champ—will take home Bronze, as will Bibossinov.
Yafai and Paalam will meet August 7 in the first Gold medal fight of the day.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
