Light-Heavyweight, Greco-Roman (≤85 kg), Men

The number one contender for the 85 kg gold medal included the ever-consistent world-ranked number one Ukrainian, Zhan Beleniuk, who entered the Rio Olympic Games as the European and World champion, and looking for his “remaining unfulfilled goal” of Olympic gold. Also heavily favored was Saman Tahmasebi of Azerbaijan who had bested Beleniuk in 2014, but was revenged in 2015. Davit Chakvetadze, the Georgian-born Russian and 2015 European Games champion, entered the day ranked third in the world and found himself in the gold medal bout with Beleniuk.

Late in the gold medal final first period, Beleniuk took a 2-0 lead into the break, but the Russian controlled the second period grabbing a 3-2 advantage, throwing Beleniuk for a four-point take-down and adding two more points before the end of the bout to win the match 9-2 and win that elusive gold medal.

The bronze medals were won by Denis Kudla of Germany and Dzhavid Gamzatov of Belarus – the 2013 World Championships bronze medalist. Kudla, who lost by technical fall to Chakvetadze in the quarter-finals, fought back through the repêchage to fight for bronze. Behind 3-2 late in that bout against Hungary’s Viktor Lőrincz, Kudla was awarded a penalty point with 34 seconds left that give him the edge on criteria. He held on to win the match and then collapsed to the ground in excitement. Gamzatov defeated Nikolay Bayryakov of Bulgaria for the other bronze.