Uzbekistan's Artur Taymazov reacts after defeating Slovakia's David Musulbes during their men's freestyle 120kg wrestling match semi-finals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on August 21, 2008.

BEIJING--Artur Taymazov of Uzbekistan retained his Olympic title in the men's freestyle 120kg wrestling at Beijing Olympic Games here on Thursday.

Taymazov defeated Bakhtiyar Akhmedov in the final to stop Russia from getting its seventh wrestling gold at the Beijing Olympics, winning the final 3-0, 1-0.

He thus became the third wrestler¹ to successfully defend the title at the Beijing Games Athens. The other two are Russian Mavelt Batirov in 60kg category and Buvaysa Saytiev in 74kg class.

The 29-year-old also won a silver in the Sydney Games.

David Musulbes of Slovakia and Marid Mutalimov of Kazakhstan jointly² won the bronze medals.