Scotland's Lee McGregor got the British bandwagon rolling in the light flyweight division as he outclassed the promising French prospect Anthony Gimenez with a skilful display to secure a 3-0 win.

Venezuelan Yoel Finol and Poland's Michal Legowski looked equally impressive in their bouts, as did Ireland's Brendan Irvine, who saw off the challenge of the tricky Artur Hovhannisyan of Armenia.

Dalton Smith was the next Briton to impress as he took to the ring to take on fellow lightweight Togrulbeg Pazzyyev of Turkmenistan and never looked troubled from the opening bell, comfortably taking the win on every judges' scorecard.

Justin Kremer of the Netherlands, Ukrainian Artur Prygoda, Georgia's Lasha Guruli, Goh Hasaka of Japan and Hungary's Richard Konnyu all came through their fights in comfortable fashion while it was not as straight forward for Romanian Arsen Mustafa and home favourite Iliyan Markov of Bulgaria who overcame Italy's Francesco Maietta and Turk Volkan Gokcek with 2-1 wins respectively.

It was a close contest too in the welterweight bout between rivals John Docherty of Britain and Ireland's John Joyce but it was Docherty who emerged victorious following a split decision to advance to the next round.

Bulgarian Robert Chamasanyan also came out on the right side of a close decision against Algeria's Omani Ouail while Vietnamese Anh Thinh Dang, American Javier Estrada and Xuanguang Zhu of China eased passed their opponents.

John Docherty (right) got the better of John Joyce in the battle of Britain and Ireland ©AIBA



Juan Solano of the Dominican Republic, Hungary's Bernard Barsony and Vincenzo Lizzi of Italy all scored impressive wins via technical knockout.

Viddal Riley secured the fourth win of the day for Britain in the light heavyweight division.

Following a close opening two rounds against Ukrainian Yaroslav Datsko, Riley, who is a European Junior Continental Championship silver medallist, showed his class by dominating the last and scoring heavily across all judges' scorecards.

Mekhrob Ibrokhimov of Tajikistan, Turkey's Ufuk Tekneci, Moldovan Dmitrii Brinza and Armenian Narek Manasyan all looked good as they secured their passage to the next round with unanimous points wins as did Blagoy Naydenov who completed a successful day for hosts Bulgaria with a comprehensive win over Russian Islam Tekeev.

"I was aware of the fact that Russia's Islam Tekeev is one of my main rivals, therefore I have tried to mobilise all of my energies in my first bout in Sofia," said a delighted Naydenov.

"I was very excited, but now the happiest man in the world after my triumph in my home country."

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