Olympics-Boxing-Cuba's La Cruz cruises into light-heavy final

* Cuban and Kazakh to fight for light-heavy gold * Britain gains another medal with super-heavy Joyce. * Cuban-born Sotomayor in the medals for Azerbaijan (Adds details on later fights) By Alan Baldwin RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Cuba's triple world champion Julio Cesar La Cruz made sure of at least an Olympic silver medal after beating Frenchman Mathieu Bauderlique in their light-heavyweight boxing semi-final on Tuesday. Bauderlique, who lost 3-0 without any of the judges awarding him a round, will leave Rio with a bronze medal while La Cruz will fight Kazakhstan's 2012 silver medallist Adilbek Niyazymbetov for the gold. "I'm feeling good... I feel confident about the final," said the Cuban, who would be the first from a nation of champions to win light-heavy gold. "I have to produce a really good performance but I think I will make it." Niyazymbetov beat Britain's Joshua Buatsi, who collects a bronze for his efforts. "I'm upset already and I've got another week left in Brazil," said the Briton. "What am I going to do for a week if I'm not boxing? Bronze is the minimum you can get and that's what I got." On a morning of quarter-finals, with 2012 Olympic heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and retired professional Floyd Mayweather in the audience, eight bronze medals were decided. The most controversial was the bantamweight bout between Irish world champion Michael Conlan and Russian Vladimir Nikitin, with the former beaten and blasting the judging and governing body AIBA. Nikitin will fight Shakur Stevenson of the United States, a heavily fancied fighter Mayweather is keeping a close eye on as a future professional prospect, who secured the second U.S. medal of the tournament. The other bantamweight semi will be between Cuba's 2012 flyweight champion Robeisy Ramirez, who only qualified for the tournament at the 11th hour, and Uzbekistan's Murodjon Akhmadaliev. Akhmadaliev produced the most explosive performance of the evening, stunning Argentina's Alberto Melian with a first round technical knockout. Another potential U.S. medal disappeared when light-welterweight Gary Russell lost to Uzbekistan's Fazliddin Gaibnazarov, who will fight Russian Vitaly Dunaytsev in the semi-finals. Germany's Artem Harutyunyan and Azerbaijan's Cuban-born Lorenzo Sotomayor Collazo will meet in the other half of the draw. France's Tony Yoka secured at least a bronze in the super-heavyweight category after out-pointing Jordan's Hussein Iashaish 3-0. His next opponent will be Croatia's Filip Hrgovic. The other semi-final will be between Britain's Joe Joyce and and Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan. Joyce had the crowd firmly on his side in his fight against Uzbekistan's Bakhodir Jalolov on Tuesday. Women's 2012 flyweight champion Nicola Adams opened the programme by shaking off some ring rust with a straightforward defeat of Ukraine's Tetyana Kob to ensure her second Olympic boxing medal. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin; editing by Jan Harvey and Andrew Hay)