USA to have one shot at boxing gold

ATHENS, Greece, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- Andre Ward kept his six-year winning streak alive Friday and became the only American with a chance to win an Olympic boxing gold medal.

Ward won his light-heavyweight semifinal bout with Utkirbek Haydarov of Uzbekistan, but had to score two points in the final 20 seconds of the final round to earn a 17-15 decision.

Ward will fight for the gold medal Sunday against Magomed Aripgadjiev of Belarus.

American middleweight Andre Dirrell lost his semifinal bout to Kazakhstan's Gennadiy Golovkin earlier Friday. Dirrell will settle for a bronze medal, which goes to both semifinal losers in each weight class.

Cuba had eight boxers in the semifinals Friday and only one of them lost.

Egypt's Aly Mohamed rallied in the final moments to defeat Cuba's Michel Lopez Nunez, 18-16, in the super-heavyweight division.

But Cuba will be going for gold in the flyweight, light-welterweight, heavyweight, light-flyweight, bantamweight, lightweight and welterweight divisions.

Russia will have three boxers in the finals.