The world champion was heavily favoured going into his final bout against Kazakhstan's Vassily Levit but knew he was in a contest early on.

Levit was the more offensive fighter, despite his shorter stature, and was adjudged to have had the better of round one by two of the three judges.

All three scored in the Russians favour in the second, however, as raucous chants of "Kaz-Akh-Stan" and "Rus-Si-Ya" reverberated around the arena.

But Tishchenko fell to the canvas and suffered a cut in the third and final round, with the contest temporarily halted while treatment took place before he withstood a furious barrage of punches in the final stages.

The decision of the Irish, Colombian and Algerian judges, therefore, to award a unanimous victory to Tishchenko was a surprise.

It was hardly ideal circumstances for the watching IOC President Thomas Bach, still under pressure for his decision to allow Russia to compete at Rio 2016 even after allegations of state-sponsored doping.

Samih Moudallal, the IOC member from Syria, among the most outspoken supporters of Bach's decision not to ban Russia, who handed out the medals for one of the most high-profile events on the Olympic boxing programme

Previous champions in this division have included Americans Joe Frazier at Tokyo 1964 and George Foreman at Mexico City 1968 and Cuba's Teófilo Stevenson at Munich 1972, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980. 

Both finallists played down the controversy afterwards, with Levit sportingly putting a finger to his lips to silence the angry crowd.

"Because I was inside the ring I didn't see the bout from the side and so I cannot make any comments regarding the officiating," he said.

"Probably the judges who were sat in the corners, had a different opinion.

"I felt that I was winning the bout but if the judges and the referee gave a different decision then they have good grounds to do so."

Tishchenko claimed he "didn't think there were any claims with regards to the officiating from the referee". 

He added: "If the referee made a bad decision and the officiating was not correct then I will be very sad for Vassiliy.

"But I think that if the referee gave the victory to me, there was a good reason to do so."

Uzbekistan's Rustam Tulaganov and Cuba's Erislandy Savón, the nephew of three-time Olympic gold medallist Félix Savón, claimed the two bronze medal after losing their respective semi-finals.

There had also been controversy earlier when Ireland's defending lightweight under 60kg champion Katie Taylor suffered a shock defeat to Mira Potkonen of Finland.

Her opponent was awarded victory after a split decision verdict.

It prompted fury from Ireland head coach Zaur Antia.

“She [Taylor] won the fight,” he said.

“First round, she won. 

"The second round it was very close, could have went to both sides, it was not great, really. 

"But the third, the fourth round...she won the fight.”