The 60 kilograms bouts launched the regular cycle which is due to last until September, with first and second round matches - which will double as qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games - to be followed by world title matches.

Hurshid Tojibaev, who competed at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, delighted the home crowd with a narrow victory over Ireland’s David Oliver Joyce in the most enthralling contest of the evening.

The Uzbekistani boxer began the bout in impressive style with Joyce unable to land his shots despite a flurry of punches, although an improved second round by the Irishman kept the contest close.

After the brief blip Tojibaev regained control of the fight and comfortably took the next three rounds to build a commanding lead, which proved enough to take the contest 77-75 on the judges’ scorecards, despite losing two of the final three rounds.

Tojibaev is now set to face Russian opposition in the next round after Dmitry Polyanskiy claimed a unanimous triumph over Brazil’s Robson Conceicao, after bouncing back from losing the opening round to outpoint his opponent.

Two judges scored the fight 77-75 in the Russian’s favour, while the remaining judge gave Polyanskiy a greater margin of victory by 78-74.

The winner of the Tojibaev and Polyanskiy fight in round two will progress to the APB title fight, where they will face reigning champion Berik Abdrakhmanov of Kazakhstan, who claimed the inaugural title after the pre-ranking events.

A third unanimous points victory of the evening was awarded to Italy’s Domenico Valentino, after the five-time AIBA World Championship medallist used his experience to dominate Germany’s Artur Bril.

The Italian, who became world amateur lightweight champion in 2009, had a comfortable margin of victory at the close of the fight with two judges scoring the fight 79-72 and the third giving him the fight 78-74.

Charly Suarez of The Philippines earned a fifth round technical knockout triumph over AIBA Pro Boxing debutant Magomedrashid Dzhabrailov of Russia in the final tie in Tashkent.

Action will continue next weekend with under 49kg light flyweight and under 56kg bantamweight competition in Guyiang, China and heavyweight action in Milan on June 5 and under 52kg flyweight contests the following night in Sofia and on June 10 in Mexico City.

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