Fowler, a bronze medallist at the 2013 World Championships before his triumph at Glasgow 2014, dominated the majority of the middleweight contest, with each judge awarding him the bout.

Eighth seed Christian Mbilli Assomo of France is also through in the division after he overcame Kamran Shakhsurvaly of Azerbaijan by unanimous decision.

Pavlos Tsagkrakos of Greece, the middleweight sixth seed, was one of the highest-profile casualties on the second day of preliminary round action,

He suffered a shock loss at the hands of Belarus' Vitali Bandarenka, who proved too strong and claimed a unanimous victory.

Vazgen Safaryants seemingly took spirit from Bandarenka's triumph as he defeated Romania's Robert Jitaru, again by unanimous decision, in the lightweight division.

Italian Domenico Valentino also progressed in the category, getting better of Enrico Lacruz of The Netherlands, though one judge could not split the two boxers and called the fight a 28-28 draw.

Britain's wo-time national champion and 2015 European Championships light heavyweight bronze medallist Joshua Buatsi followed compatriot Fowler in keeping his Rio 2016 dream alive as he beat Siarhei Novikau of Belarus.

Lawrence Okolie continued the British success by winning his heavyweight clash with Cristian Constantinov of Moldova in style, stopping his opponent towards the end of the first round.

Cyrus Pattinson, also of Britain, made light work of Finland's Muhammad Abdilrasoon to maintain his pursuit of a spot at this summer's Olympics, clinching a unanimous win in the welterweight division.

Bulgaria's Simeon Chamov made sure of a place on the next round in the same category, claiming one of the more dominant successes of the evening with all three judges scoring his bout with Anas Messaoudi of Belgium 30-27 in his favour.

As many as 36 qualification spots for Rio 2016 are on the line in Samsun, where a total of 217 men and 57 women, representing 38 European countries, are competing.

There are 10 weight categories for men, ranging from light flyweight up to super heavyweight, with the two finalists from each division receiving a Rio 2016 quota spot and the two losing semi-finalists taking part in a box-off for the third and final qualification place.

The women are competing in three weight categories, flyweight, lightweight and middleweight, with the two finalists in each class winning a Rio 2016 quota.