Ramirez Duran had defeated three-time reigning world champion Julio César La Cruz of Cuba during last season’s World Series of Boxing campaign, making his opponent’s victory all the more impressive. 

Awaiting Romero Torres in the second preliminary round is in fact La Cruz, who received a bye as the top seed.

Among the other stand-out displays on the second day of action was that of Greek welterweight Alexandros Tsanikidis, who got his campaign off to a winning start against Puerto Rico’s Bryan Polaco Ojeda.

Having made the step up from a successful youth career, Tsanikidis was forced to take a step away from elite competition when a back issue kept him out of the ring. 

He missed the Rio 2016 qualifying path but managed to ensure his place at this event through his performance at the 2017 European Championships in Ukrainian city Kharkiv in June. 

Flyweights Hamza Touba of Germany and Gabriel Escobar of Spain got today’s competition underway with the latter emerging a unanimous winner over the number eight seed.

Experienced Dutch lightweight Enrico Lacruz then proved too powerful for 2016 youth world champion Delante Johnson of the United States, while Georgia’s Otar Eranosyan narrowly overcame Kazakh national champion Adilet Kurmetov to demonstrate his podium potential in the category.

At the start of the evening session, flyweight Jasurbek Latipov became the first member of the Uzbekistan team to get a taste of action at the event and produced a steady performance to secure victory over Puerto Rico’s Yankiel Rivera Figueroa.

Armenian Karen Tonakanyan earned a hard-fought victory over Australia’s Harry Garside in the evening’s first lightweight bout, and Mongolian welterweight Tuvshinbat Byamba dominated Damian Kiwior of Poland.

The Indian team’s strong start to the competition also continued, with welterweight Manoj Kumar defeating Moldova’s Vasilii Belous on a split decision.

A competitive light heavyweight competition looks set to be in store after Georgia’s Iago Kiziria edged past Scotland’s Sean Lazzerini in a pulsating bout.

Jordan’s Zeyad Eashash, meanwhile, showed why he was awarded a wildcard place here with an inspired win over Australia’s Andrew Hunt.

At super heavyweight, Hunt’s team-mate Joe Goodall was too strong for Egypt’s Uosry Rezk across three rounds and Azerbaijan’s Mahammadrasul Majidov overcame India’s Satish Kumar in the last bout of the day.

England enjoyed a successful outing with all four of their fighters coming through their preliminary round contests. 

The nation’s first win of the day came courtesy of welterweight Pat McCormack, who claimed a unanimous points win over Brazil’s Jhonathan de Oliveira.

Light heavyweight Thomas Hart was awarded a walkover victory from his scheduled encounter with Angola’s Menayame Mbimbi, who failed to show up for the weigh-in, and there were two further wins for England in the evening session.

Coming in quick succession, flyweight Niall Dean Farrell beat Morocco’s Abdelali Daraa before lightweight Calum French defeated Mexico’s Alberto Mora Garcia 5-0.

Among the other nations registering multiple successes today were Italy and Russia.

Italy’s three wins all came in the evening session, headlined by light heavyweight Valentino Manfredonia and super heavyweight Guido Vianello registering unanimous points wins over Zambia’s Mbachi Kaonga and Trinidad and Tobago’s Nigel Paul respectively.

Flyweight Manuel Cappai’s progress was ensured thanks to a walkover win from his arranged bout with Venezuela’s Franklin Gonzalez, who, like Mbimbi, failed to show up for the weigh-in.

Russia’s first triumph of the day went to flyweight Tamir Galanov, a 5-0 victor at the expense of Barbados’ Jabali Breedy.

In the evening session, there were also wins for welterweight Sergei Sobylinskii and light heavyweight Muslim Gadzhimagomedov.

Both prevailed on all five judges’ scorecards as Mauritius’ Merven Clair and Colombia’s Jeysson Monroy Varela fell at the first hurdle.

Russia did not have things all their own way, however, with lightweight Gabil Mamedov losing 4-1 to home favourite Murat Yildirim.

Action in Hamburg is due to continue tomorrow with the second day of preliminary round matches in the light flyweight, bantamweight, light welterweight, middleweight and heavyweight categories.