Kazakh brawler wears scar with pride

Daniyar Yeleussinov of Kazakhstan salutes the crowd after his welterweight semifinal victory. [Photo/Agencies]

Boxer Daniyar Yeleussinov might be scarred for life after winning welterweight gold on Wednesday, but if so, he welcomed it on a historic day for Kazakhstan.

With blood seeping from a nasty gash over his left eye, the 25-year-old said he expects it to serve as a permanent reminder of what he has achieved.

"Probably, yes. The scar will remind me. Because I was boxing with this cut, I feel double proud about it," he said after beating Uzbekistan's Shakhram Giyasov by unanimous decision.

Morocco's Mohammed Rabii and France's Souleymane Diop Cissokho, who lost to Yeleussinov on Monday in a fight that was stopped by a clash of heads that cut the Kazakh, won bronze medals as losing semifinalists.

The victory extended Kazakhstan's dominance of the welterweight division to four Games in a row.

It was only the second time that a country had won the same division for four straight Olympics and the first such streak involving four different boxers.

Serik Sapiyev punched his way to victory at London 2012, Bakhyt Sarsekbayev in Beijing in 2008 and Bakhtiyar Artayev in Athens in 2004.

Cuba won the heavyweight class in four successive Olympics between 1992 and 2004, but Felix Savon won the first three of those titles before Odlanier Solis took the fourth.

Yeleussinov, whose middleweight brother Dauren fights as a professional in the US, said welterweight should now be called "Kazakh weight."

"It is our weight and I just proved it again," Yeleussinov said.

Giyasov entertained the crowd in his earlier fights by celebrating victory in the style of Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo, but he never had the chance to show off his open-mouthed leap.

Yeleussinov took the first round 10-9 on all three scorecards and the second round was more of the same.

The elusive Kazakh ducked and shimmied, bouncing off the ropes as Giyasov stalked him before catching the Uzbek with counter punches.

"That is my style and technique," he said. "See the punches and try to avoid them."

The third round went to the Uzbek, but it was too little, too late.

Asked whether victory made up for his compatriot Vitaly Levit losing the heavyweight final to Russian Evgeny Tishchenko in a Monday bout that raised questions about the judging, Yeleussinov said he was just glad to have won.

"I gave it my best," he said.