The Preliminaries continued on Day 2 of the AIBA Youth Boxing World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, with some fantastic boxing on show. A marathon program was held, with 54 bouts in three sessions. The Cubans lived up to their reputation as one of the strongest teams in the Championships by exhibiting some dominant performances, the SportCampus specialized website reports.

The two-time Pavlyukov Youth Memorial Tournament winner Javier Ibanez Diaz has never tasted defeat at international level, but his preliminary round opponent in Elvis Severino Rodriguez was the Dominican Republic’s biggest hope, and the AMBC American Junior Continental Champion was looking to score an upset.

Ibanez fought an intelligent contest however, consistently concentrating against the Dominican southpaw and found much joy with a succession of crunching body shots.

After a blistering start, Rodriguez ran out of steam somewhat in the final round, while a still fresh Ibanez continued to look impressive in keeping his undefeated record intact.

His teammate, the defending AIBA Junior World Champion Alayn Limonta was also looking for a strong start in Sofia, especially following his unexpected loss at the Pavlyukov Youth Memorial Tournament in Anapa, Russia six weeks ago.

His surprise defeat seemed to spur him on further here though, as the Cuban Lightweight (60kg) dominated his contest against the Seychelles’ southpaw Daniel Bonne from the very beginning of the fight, winning all three rounds and looking destructive throughout.