Al-Kasbeh’s cleaner work from short range, teamed with a variety of dynamic hooks, uppercuts and combination punching, ultimately proved decisive following three rounds of scintillating action in the Thai capital.

He will now go on to face Uzbekistan’s two-time national champion Elnur Abduraimov in the last 16.

The highly-entertaining bout was one of eight preliminary lightweight contests, the first of which saw Indonesia’s Farrand Papendang achieve an excellent victory against Qatari veteran Mohamed Abdullateef Sadiq.

This was followed by success for India’s teenage sensation Manish Kaushik, who only joined the elite age group in January, against Bangladesh's former South Asian Games winner Mohammad Nadim Hossein.

"I often dreamed about my participation in such a big event as the ASBC Asian Confederation Boxing Championships, but two years ago when I suffered a serious injury I was not hopeful that I would take part in a major boxing competition before my 20th birthday," said Kaushik.

"My counter-attacks worked well today, and I was trying to use my footwork as a weapon against my neighbouring opponent.

"I know the serious part of the Championships will start with the next bout."

Elsewhere, Japan’s Daisuke Narimatsu continued his unbeaten record in 2015 against Turkmenistan's Hursand Imankuliyev, while Kazakhstan’s World Series of Boxing team champion and two-time national champion Zakir Safiullin got the better of China’s Shan Jun.

Tajikistan’s Anvar Yunusov, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) World Championships bronze medallist, was among the favourites at lightweight, but suffered a serious hand injury in his first round match with Iraq’s Ammar Jabbar Hassan, forcing him out of the contest.

There were also wins for Iran’s Forootan Golara and Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Hai against Bhutan’s Tsherig Wangchuk and Chinese Taipei’s Chu-En Lai respectively.

A total of 188 boxers from 28 countries are competing at the Championships, making it the biggest ever Asian boxing tournament.

The second day of preliminaries is scheduled to be held tomorrow with 13 matches across the light flyweight and bantamweight divisions.


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