Rio 2016: Joe Joyce secures minimum bronze medal as Joshua Buatsi takes bronze

British boxing achieved its target of three medals with Joyce's win over Bakhodir Jalolov

Joyce pins Jalolov up against the ropes (Getty)

Big Joe Joyce will leave Rio with a minimum of a bronze medal after a heavy win against Uzbek Bakhodir Jalolov in the super-heavyweight quarter-final and that means that British boxing has achieved its Olympic target of three medals.

Joyce simply broke Jalolov's heart early in the first round, probably cracked a few of the Uzbek's ribs in the second and forced the referee to stop the action twice in the third round and rescue Jalolov with a standing eight count. The short eight second reprieves did little to help Jalolov recover and he immediately became Joyce's personal punchbag and showed tremendous heart to survive until the final bell.

"That's the medal, but I never made all the sacrifices to come here and settle for bronze - I'm here for gold," said Joyce, who will now fight Kazak hardman Ivan Dychko on Friday in the semi-final. "This is my time, I can tell - every single thing has gone so well and I can't wait to fight again," added Joyce.

There was an end to the exceptional journey of Joshua Buatsi in the semi-final at light-heavyweight when Kazak Adibek Niyazymbetov slipped, ducked and countered brilliantly to take the decision. Niyazymbetov lost in the final four years ago in London in a disputed decision and in Rio he simply knew too much for Buatsi.

It was Buatsi's fourth fight and he stopped two of his previous three, looked sensational and will return to south London with a bronze medal that is very likely to be sufficient to translate directly into hard cash in the professional market. It is just a pity that he will not stay amateur until Tokyo in 2020 when he would be the same age as Niyazymbetov.

Buatsi congratulates Niyazymbetov on his win (Getty)

Six hours earlier at the boxing, Michael Conlan had ripped off his vest and, remaining in the centre of the ring, saluted each of the judges with his middle finger to offer a unique recognition of the injustice he had just suffered. Conlan, the number one seed and current World champion, was on the wrong end of a disgraceful verdict against Russia's Vladimir Nikitin and will now turn professional, possibly joining his brother Jamie as part of the MGM Marbella group.

"I could have turned professional after London, after winning that bronze medal, but I wanted gold! I knew I could win gold," said Conlan, whose expletive-rich rant during a post-fight interview on RTE in Ireland quickly became a viral favourite. At the Olympics in London there was an appeal process for disputed fights, but it has been scrapped and I truly believe that the Conlan verdict would have been overturned on appeal if the option was still available.

Conlan's father, John, who is also part of the Irish coaching team, admitted that he knew there was a problem after the opening round. "Michael clearly won the first round, that shocked me when I saw they had all gone against him - then he had to go and have a fight. It still hasn't quite sunk in what they have done to him," he said. He was not alone, only a few people in the arena knew what had happened, but sadly three of those were the judges.

A few minutes before the squalor of the Conlan defeat it was the quarter-final of the flyweight class for women and Nicola Adams, the defending champion, floated to an easy decision over Urkaine's Tetyana Kob. Adams will now meet China's Cancan Ren in Thursday's semi-final, a repeat of the historic final in London four years ago. Meanwhile, Savannah Marshall has her second contest when she fights Nouchka Fontijn in Wednesday's middleweight quarter-final and she starts as the underdog.