The 19-year-old claimed a 4-1 split-decision win over his opponent in one of the stand-out performances from the 40 bouts contested.

Victory continued his good recent form which has seen him already triumph in Germany this year, winning the Chemistry Cup in Halle in March to mark his first international tournament in style. 

Awaiting Ragan in the second preliminary round is Scotland’s Lee McGregor, who recovered from a knock-down to claim a 4-1 points win over Vanuatu’s Boe Warawara.

Irish bantamweight Kurt Walker was also the subject of a count and, despite pushing the Dominican Republic’s Leonel de los Santos all the way in a gripping afternoon contest, he ultimately lost 4-1.

Fast-handed fifth seed De los Santos’ reward is a meeting with Italy’s Raffaele Di Serio, a 4-1 victor at the expense of South Korea’s Han Younghun.

It was also a successful day for India with light flyweight Amit and bantamweight Gaurav Bidhuri both producing impressive displays to progress to the second round.

Amit beat Italy’s Federico Serra 4-1, while Bidhuri registered a unanimous points win over Australia’s Sam Goodman.

Puerto Rican light flyweight Oscar Collazo was among today’s other winners, delivering a powerful statement of intent on his World Championship debut against Belarus’ Yauheni Karmilchyk.

In the same division, Kazakhstan’s Zhomart Yerzhan controlled his encounter with Guatemala’s Michael Tello Tello.

Nicaraguan Angel Jarquin’s powerful right in the second round of his match against Uganda’s Geoffrey Kaketo forced the referee to call a halt to proceedings.

England’s light welterweight medal hope Luke McCormack began his campaign with a gutsy win over China’s Wang Gang before the first of the heavyweight action saw Colombian Deivis Julio Blanco unload some huge punches to overcome China’s Yu Fengkai.

It was England versus Scotland in the opening bout of the evening session as Galal Yafai put in a confident performance to defeat Aqeel Ahmed at light flyweight and set up a tough tie against Olympic silver medallist Yuberjen Martínez Rivas of Colombia on Sunday (August 27).

Turkmenistan’s Aziz Achilov, meanwhile, showed that he and his team-mates could be a force to be reckoned with under their new coach, former Olympic and world champion Aleksandr Lebziak of Russia, following an assured victory over Puerto Rico’s Luis Rodriguez.

Action in Hamburg is due to continue tomorrow with preliminary-round matches in the flyweight, lightweight, welterweight, light heavyweight and super heavyweight categories.