THE United States were within two minutes of finishing the Olympics without a boxing gold when Philadelphia light-middleweight David Reid pulled off a sensational victory over Cuba's Alfred Duvergel.
Reid, 22, was all but beaten when he produced a right-hander to stop Duvergel, who had failed to re-adjust his defence after throwing a straight left the Cuban, 15-6 ahead and seemingly on an unstoppable course to the gold, crashed to the canvas to an earsplitting roar. Duvergel managed to pull himself up, but the referee immediately stopped the bout.
The 28-year-old Duvergel could not believe what had happened and wept while Reid was embraced by his cornermen and left the arena waving the stars and stripes - and sporting a swollen left eye.
Had Reid not produced his escape act, the United States would have failed to win a boxing gold medal for the first time since the 1948 Games in London.
Reid trailed 4-6 going into the second, which proved to be a rocky round for the American. He took a standing count, and was repeatedly caught by thumping lefts from the Cuban. It was almost becoming a one-way affair when Reid turned silver into gold by punishing Duvergel for his defensive lapse.
Vasilli Jirov, of Kazakhstan, took the light-heavyweight gold medal with a lop-sided verdict over the Korean Seung-Bae Lee. Jirov never allowed his opponent into the fight, and forced Lee to take a standing count in the third before easing to the top of the podium 17-4. Jirov afterwards received a bonus award to add to his gold medal - a trophy for being the most outstanding boxer of the Games.
Damaen Kelly's conqueror Bulat Dzumadilov could only take the silver in the flyweight final, letting slip a handy 8-5 lead after two rounds to go down 12-11 to the Cuban Maikro Romero.
Dzumadilov, the world number one from Kazakhstan, displayed fast hands and a telling jab to make an early mark on the bout. But the Cuban never allowed Dzumadilov to settle and came on strongly in the final round, pressuring his way to level terms with 55 seconds left and did enough in the closing moments to get home 12-11.
The light-welterweight final brought Cuba their fourth gold medal out of six attempts. Southpaw Hector Vinent, from Santiago, overcame Germany's Oktay Urkal 20-13, flooring the Berliner in the opening round.
Urkal showed plenty of fortitude after taking his standing eight count,
Vinent was just too fast and persistent. Whenever Urkal countered to score, Vinent simply stepped on the gas to preserve his big points advantage, and the Cuban applied so much pressure in the second round that the referee may have thought about stopping the fight.
Urkal, though, bravely stuck to his task in round three, but the 24-year-old Cuban never let up.
There was no fairytale gold medal for the 22-stone Tongan Paea Wolfgram, who was beaten 4-7 as the result of a final round surge from the Ukraine's Vladimir Klichko in the super-heavyweight final.
Wolfgram, the first Tongan to win an Olympic medal, led 1-0 at the end of the first round after landing a left hook to the body as Klichko showed the bigger man some early respect - not surprising after Wolfgram's knockout of Cuba's Rubalcaba Alexis in the quarter-finals.
Tonga's hopes were high when Wolfgram led 3-2 after two rounds, but the complexion changed when Klichko came out for the third meaning business.
The Ukrainian stepped up a gear, and quickly went into a 5-3 led with a big attack which left Wilfram's nose bleeding. The 20-year-old Klickho was then on a roll and never let go, taking the gold in his first Olympic appearance.
