Cuba, Russia and Kazakhstan also ended the Championships in style with all three nations securing two world titles apiece.

Shakur Stevenson was the first American to get his hands on a gold medal as he overcame Britain's Muhammad Ali in the flyweight division.

At the other end of the scale, super heavyweight Daramni Rock showed fighting spirit and determination to come through a ding-dong battle with German Peter Kadiru via a split decision.

The third and final American victory came in the form of Jajaira Gonzalez in the women's lightweight gold medal bout as she secured a handsome points win over Turkey's Esra Yildiz to record the US' best ever haul at the Championships.

Javier Ibanez Diaz was one of two Cubans to lift world titles at the AIBA Youth Boxing World Championships ©AIBA



Russian boxers also won all of their bouts in the Bulgarian capital today with win's in the men's light welterweight and middleweight divisions.

Bibert Tumenov was crowned light welterweight champion following a superb contest with Ukrainian rival Viktor Petrov.

Both fighters gave as good as they got but Tumenov's skill shone through in the end as he edged ahead in each of the three rounds.

The middleweight crown went the way of Russian national youth champion Dmitrii Nesterov who also recorded a unanimous points win over the talented and dangerous Croatian Luka Plantic.

Powerhouses Kazakhstan will be slightly disappointed with their haul of two world titles considering they had four boxers going for gold today.

Shalkar Aikhynbay got the day off to a perfect start for the Kazakhs by emerging the victor in the men's light flyweight decider against Sulaymon Latipov.

That win was added to by newly crowned lightweight champion Ablaikhan Zhussupov after he had too much for Romanian Arsen Mustafa.

But there was disappointment for teammates Sultan Zaurbek and Vadim Kazakov.

Zaurbek had no answer to the skill and speed of Cuban Javier Ibanez Diaz who dominated their bantamweight final to secure gold while Blagoy Naydenov ensured Bulgaria claimed one world title on home soil as he outclassed Kazakov in the light heavyweight decider.

Home favourite Blagoy Naydenov shows his delight after being crowned light heavyweight world champion at the Armeec Arenna ©AIBA



Cuba's second gold went to Yordan Hernandez who used his powerful jab to continually pick off his opponent Toni Filipi who had do make do with Croatia's second silver medal of the day.

The Croatians will be the most disappointed team leaving Sofia as they suffered their third final defeat when Uzbekistan's Bektemir Melikuziev took the welterweight world title ahead of Prtenjaca Luka.

Armenian Anush Grigoryan was in impressive form as she became her country's first female world champion with victory over Irma Testa of Italy while Poland's Elzbieta Wojcik powered passed Australian Caitlin Parker to take the middleweight world title.

Meanwhile, five boxers took their second chance to qualify of the Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games in their respective "box-off" clashes.

In the one women's bout, Chinese Taipei's Huang Hsiao-Wen secured her spot in the flyweight category at the Games this summer with a hard-fought win over Russian Ekaterina Paltceva.

The crowds at the Armeec Arena have been treated to 11 days of world class boxing action ©AIBA



There were also narrow wins for Moldovan flyweight Gaurav Solanki, who was in Sofia as part of the AIBA Road to Sofia programme, and compatriot Vladislav Tugui in the light welterweight division.

Both boxers secured split decision wins over Brazil's Carlos Silva and Turk Furkan Acci respectively.

The final lightweight spot at Nanjing 2014 was claimed by Hungarian Richard Konnyu as he secured a unanimous points win against William Segura of Mexico.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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