At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Joe Joyce lost a controversial decision in the super heavyweight final, one of 12 misjudgments in boxing tournaments that led to an investigation that resulted in boxing being removed from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Joyce's final was on the list of the worst bouts.
In Rio, Joyce was seeded third and had to win three times to reach the final and face Frenchman Toni Joca, the top seed. The draw was tight, and Joyce had to beat Uzbekistan's Bakodir Yarolov and Ivan Dychko, the second seed.
In the final, Joyce faced Joca in a close match, but most at ringside believed Joyce had done enough to win and take the gold medal. This wasn't the biggest shock of Rio; Michael Conlan's loss to Vladimir Nikitin in the quarter-finals was far worse.
Yarolov won gold in Tokyo four years later and returned to Paris as the No. 1 seed. Yarolov is unbeaten in 14 professional matches and has yet to hear the final gong so far in his professional career.
Jarolov beat Fraser Clark in the third place in the semifinals in Tokyo, and British boxer Delicious Ollie is set to face Jarolov in the semifinals in Paris.
Yarolov, known as Big Uzbek, has also won the amateur world championships in 2019 and 2023. He is 30 years old, old for an amateur boxer, and stands just under 6 feet 8 inches tall with padded socks. He has been given nearly $1 million by the Uzbek government as a reward for winning the world championships and winning an Olympic gold medal. There is also bold talk of a big professional bout this year.
Yarolov occupies a historically murky territory in the so-called amateur sport, appearing to be a state-controlled and state-funded boxer, much like those from Soviet bloc countries during the Cold War, a list that also includes the mighty Cubans.
Certainly, Ollie is a beneficiary of the funding from the GB Centre in Sheffield, benefiting from benefits that British boxers could only dream of before 2010. But it is not the kind of support that Havana, Moscow and now Tashkent can offer their boxers.
In the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Cold War-era boxers dominated the Olympics, European Championships and, from 1974 onwards, World Championships. Yarolov is part of that tradition.
On Saturday 27 July, Joyce takes on Dereck Chisora at the O2 for the right to remain a minor fighter in the lucrative pro business. The same day in Paris marks the start of Yarolov's Olympic boxing campaign; a win for Joyce will lead to a big fight, perhaps in Saudi Arabia later this year. A win or three for Yarolov will see him claim another gold medal and a visit to the presidential palace in Tashkent to receive $500,000. Not a bad way to celebrate a victory in amateur sport.
And maybe Jarolov will get an invite to the heavyweight party in Riyadh and a chance to get revenge on Joyce. Jarolov has only lost once in the third round since his loss to Joyce in Rio, but he counts that defeat as avenged. The two big Olympians, Joyce and Jarolov, may have some unfinished business.
