Conceição, the under 60 kilograms fighter who competed unsuccessfully at Beijing and London, was always a serious medal contender but appeared a long shot for gold considering he had only ever won silver and bronze on the World Championship stage.

But he had shown superb form throughout the competition, and was always going to be boosted by support from a crowd which gave a new definition to the word partisan.

Foot-stomping, singing and roars greeted his arrival into the ring, while a chorus of boos accompanied French opponent Sofiane Oumiya.

Conceição, unsurprisingly spurred on, began strongest and never eased back.

He was awarded all three rounds in a unanimous decision to follow the likes of United States' Oscar De La Hoya, Cuba's Mario Kindelan and Ukraine's Vasyl Lomachenko in claiming Olympic lightweight glory. 

"It's amazing that my life has changed forever," the winner said afterwards.

"It was an incredible feeling to represent the whole of Brazil and also Bahia.

"I continued to fight because of them. 

"They gave me the strength when I was fighting, so it was an incredible feeling - it's because of them that I got this medal."

The atmosphere during the fight was more akin to a football match, and memories of the 2014 FIFA World Cup were revived during the national anthem.

Conceição led the crowd through a stirring rendition in one of the home highlights of the Games so far.

It made amends for a controversial start to the day in which Ireland's Michael Conlan claimed "amateur boxing stinks from the core right to the top" after a unanimous loss to Russian opponent Vladimir Nikitin in a bantamweight quarter-final in which he had appeared the stronger fighter.

Julio Cesar La Cruz was another to impress today by sweeping past French hope Albert Daniel Bauderlique in his under 81kg semi-final.

He will now face Adilbek Niyazymbetov of Kazakhstan in the final.