Both fighters squared up in the men's bantamweight division in, what was a clash of national champions, and it was the Cuban who emerged victorious, despite a spirited effort from Balderas which saw him push the much vaunted Diaz close throughout, particularly in the opening exchanges.

The18-year-old Diaz showed why he is considered by many as the likely gold medal winner in Sofia by regaining his composure and displaying flashes of brilliance to eventually secure a unanimous points win.

Elsewhere in the bantamweight division Dushko Mihaylov delighted home fans by seeing off Tunisian Mekki Ben Said while China's Long Wang, Sultan Zaurbek of Kazakhstan, Briton Peter McGrail and Slovakian Michal Takacs all secured their place in the quarter-final stages.

After impressing yesterday, Britain's Lee McGregor could not sustain his medal challenge and went down to Subaru Murata of Japan in the light flyweight division, which also saw wins for Venezuelan Yoel Finol, Shalkar Aikhynbay of Kazakhstan, Turkey's Mert Karaklic and Nico Hernandez of the United States who came through a close contest with Mongolian Tumurkhuyag Bat-Ochir.

McGregor's teammate Muhammed Ali showed flashes of skill and speed that his famous namesake would have been proud of as he secured a quarter-final berth in the flyweight division, seeing off Chinese Taipei's Po-Wei Tu in a one-sided affair.

Yoel Finol of Venezuela (right) impressed as he secured a comfortable passage to the light flyweight quarter-finals of the Youth World Championships in Sofia ©AIBA



Daniel Asenov continued his impressive showing on home soil as he overcame the dangerous Battamir Ganbold in surprisingly comfortable fashion as did Shakur Stevenson of the US, who despatched Turkmenistan's Hursand  Imankuliyev.

The lightweight division was highlighted by a closely fought contest between Ukraine's Artur Prygoda and Dutchman Justin Kremer which saw Prygoda given the nod in a split decision while Romania's Arsen Mustafa also came on the right side of a close decision against home fighter Iliyan Markov.

Alayn Limonta was another Cuban to impress as he easily saw off Georgia's Lasha Gurulli, while Goh Hosaka of Japan, Mexican William Segura and Ikboljon Kholdarov of Uzbekistan all advanced to the quarter-finals in comfortable fashion.

In the light welterweight bouts, Italian Vincenzo Arecchia proved too good for Britain's Patrick McDonagh, while Moldova's Vladislav Tugui was equally dominant against Swede Aluje Ismail.

Another Scandinavian, Muhammad Abdilrasoon of Finland lost out to Japan's Toshihiro Suzuki in a much closer encounter and will be joined in the quarter-finals by Ukraine's Viktor Petrov, Hungarian Richard Toth, Javid Guliyev of Azerbaijan and Turkey's Furkan Avci.

At welterweight there were straight forward wins for Italian Vincenzo Lizzi, Jakub Korbel of the Czech Republic and Belarus' Ilyas Adzinayeu while Hungarian Bernard Bersony did not endear himself to the locals by scoring a technical knockout win over Robert Chamasanyan.

In the middleweight division the crowd were cheered up again as the witnessed Nikolay Chavdarov outclass Tunisian Mohamed Mabrouki, while other standout performers included Croatia's Luka Plantic, Satali Tevi-Fuimaono of Australia, Russian Dmitrii Nesterov and Uzbekistan's Kozimbek Mardonov.

Croatian Luka Plantic secured his place in the quarter-final of the middleweight division at the Armeec Arena ©AIBA



Britain's Viddal Riley continued his impressive in Sofia with another unanimous points win over Mekhrob  Ibrokhimov of Tajikistan in the light heavyweight class and will be joined in the next stage by Turkey's Ufuk  Tekneci, Obidjon Tokhirov of Uzbekistan, Armenian Narek Manasyan, while technical knockouts saw Poland's Rafal Staszewski and another home favourite, Blagoy Naydenov also progress.

The heavyweight division was highlighted by a quality contest between Toni Filipi of Croatia and Kazakhstan's Temirlan Kabiyev which saw the Croat emerge with the win following a split decision as did Ireland's Michael Gallagher against his opponent Connal McDonald of Britain.

The other bouts saw straight forward wins for Azerbaijan's Shukran Mehdiyev, Dutchman Thomas Oomen, Cuban Yordan Hernandez and South Korea's Kim Jinnyong.

The super heavyweights were also in action on an action packed in the Armeec Arena and Nathan Gorman made up for teammate McDonald's loss by seeing off Algerian Ouarzedine Adlane 2-1.

German Peter Kadiru and American Daramni Rock scored technical knockout wins to advance while comfortable points victories were secured by Mahammadali Tahirov of Azerbaijan, Russian Marat Kerimkhanov and Argentina's Kevin Espindola.

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