Limonta got the defence of his lightweight title underway against the Seychelles' southpaw Daniel Bonne and never looked in any danger as he was comfortably ahead after each round while compatriot Inbanez was equally dominant in his bantamweight bout with Elvis Rodriguez of the Dominican Republic.

American Junior Continental champion Rodriguez came out strong in the first round but soon ran out of steam against a clever opponent who scored heavily with a series of crunching body punches.

Moldova's 17-year-old lightweight European Junior Championship silver medallist Dorin Bucsa entered the tournament as one of the more fancied fighters for a medal and he showed why by outclassing Algerian Chemseddine Kramou.

There were also impressive showings from other lightweights including Russian Temirlan Batdyev, Richard Konnyu of Hungary, Turkmenistan's Togrulbeg Pazzyyev, and Australia's Liam Austin who overcame Ireland's Tiernan Bradley.

There was also Irish disappointment in the bantamweight division as reigning European champion Gary Cully lost out in a tight contest to the Ukrainian Volodymyr Fedorak who recovered from a shaky start to take the win.

Anyelen Espinosa of Argentina (right) gained revenge over American rival Caitlin Orosco in Sofia today ©AIBA



Mongolian Tsendbaatar Erdenebat and Lee Chuan-Wei of Chinese Taipei also came through close contests in the bantamweight class while Jordanian Ahmad Almatbouli, Kazakhstan's Sultan Zaurbak and Hrayr Shahverdyan of Armenia went through to the next stage with notable performances.

The women's competition also got underway in Sofia with the flyweights in action.

Britain's Crystal Barker inflicted Ireland's third defeat of the day when she saw off the challenge of Kristina O'Hara while Turkey's Neriman Istik and Mutiat Adebayo of Nigeria sealed their wins in comfortable fashion.

American Caitlin Orosco and Argentina's Anyelen Espinosa faced off in a rematch of the gold medal match at the American Women's Youth Continental Championships which was won by Orosco.

The Argentinean, nicknamed "La Peke" was determined to level up her record against Orosco and she duly done so emerging on the right side of a tight contest taking the win 2-1.

Tomorrow sees the women's flyweight competition continue along with the lightweight while the men's light welterweight, welterweight and middleweight divisions swing into action.

The 2014 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships are due to take place until April 24.

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