It helped get the Otamans campaign back on track after they had suffered three straight defeats at the hands of the Russian Boxing Team, Cuba Domadores and Mexico Guerreros to dent their prospects of qualification from Group A.

They were handed an early advantage ahead of their encounter with the Lionhearts, who entered the night off the back of four successive defeats, with Ashley Williams having to be withdrawn on medical grounds, putting the Otamans 1-0 up before a punch had been thrown.

A controversial stoppage in the fifth round of the bantamweight bout between the Otamans' Mykola Butsenko and the Lionhearts' Qais Ashfaq put the Ukrainian team on the verge of the victory on the night.

Ashfaq, who was ahead on the judges' scorecards suffered a cut to his head, with the referee opting to award the fight to Butsenko for a technical knock-out, rather than go to the scorecards.

Sam Maxwell put the Lionhearts back into contention on the night with his third victory of the season in the light-welterweight division fight against Mger Oganisian.

The Englishman was awarded the victory unanimously by the judges, with one giving Maxwell a points victory of 50:45, while the other two scored the fight 49:46 in his favour.

The Ukraine Otamans have now claimed five World Series of Boxing wins this season ©WSB



It proved to be the high point of the Lionhearts night as defeat was confirmed after another stoppage, this time in the heavyweight division.

Otamans fighter Denys Poyatsyka suffered the cut to his forehead during his bout with the Lionhearts' Ionut-Mirel Jitaru, although this time the verdict was decided by the judges' scorecards, who awarded the fight to the Ukrainian.

A bad night for the Lionhearts was compounded in the final fight of the night where Antony Fowler's hopes of finishing in the top two places in the WSB middleweight division rankings, which would see him qualify for Rio 2016, took a blow as he suffered his first defeat of the season.

Following defeat to Hurshidbek Normatov, Fowler now lies in joint fifth position in the rankings and will require wins in his next two fights, against Algerian and Cuban boxers to keep his hopes of finishing in the top two alive.

"I can't complain about the result," Fowler admitted after the fight.

"His southpaw style was very difficult and I need to have more practice against that type of boxer.

"The better man won on the night and I will learn from the experience and come back stronger."

The Lionhearts will hope to end their losing streak when Morocco Atlas Lions come to York Hall on March 19, while the Otamans will be in action again the following day, hosting the China Dragons in Kyiv.

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