Cuban heavyweight wrestler Mijain Lopez once again came out on top against Turkish rival Riza Kayaalp — this time with an Olympic performance that put him in the company of wrestling great Alexander Karelin.

Lopez beat Kayaalp 6-0 in the 130kg division on Monday (15 August) at the Rio 2016 Games to capture his third Greco-Roman gold medal.

Rio-time updates: follow all the action with our live blog

He joins Russian great Karelin and Carl Westergren of Sweden as the only wrestlers with three Olympic titles in the classic discipline.

Lopez, who lost to Kayaalp in last year's world finals, scored in only 15 seconds to essentially seal the match.

Lopez gets to grips with Kayaalp (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

"It's just a trremendous honour because of the level that (Karelin) was at," Lopez said. "Now, this is my time."

Though the heavyweight field was fairly deep, an Olympic rematch between Lopez and Kayaalp seemed inevitable. No one came close to threatening either one of them in the preliminaries.

Wrestling at Rio 2016: schedule and results

Lopez's intensity was apparent from the moment the horn sounded for the last match. He flipped Kayaalp onto his back for a four-pointer after only 15 seconds and made it 5-0 less than a minute later.

"My strategy was to counter his efforts and go with it," Lopez said.

Cuba's Ismael Borrero Molina wins first wrestling gold

Russian wrestler Davit Chakvetadze also won gold, finishing first in the 85kg weight class to give Russia its second Olympic title in as many days.

He rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat top-ranked Ukrainian Zhan Beleniuk 9-2. Beleniuk now has two losses this year — and both came against Chakvetadze.

"I am the happiest man on earth," Chakvetadze said.