
Earlier in the day, Ireland’s fellow light heavyweight Joseph Ward and Kazakhstan’s much-fancied Adilbek Niyazymbetov had secured their safe passage to the next round.
In the evening’s lightweight match-ups, experienced Azerbaijani Albert Selimov held off a determined challenge from Ireland’s Sean McComb to set up a rematch of the European Games final against France’s Sofiane Oumiha on Saturday evening.
Brazil’s Robson Donato Conceicao showed why he will be among Brazil’s gold medal hopes at Rio 2016 with some swift attacking and solid defence against the resilient Russian Adlan Abdurashidov. He will go on to face Joseph Cordina in Saturday’s quarter-final after the Brit proved too strong for North Korea’s Kwon Choi Guk.
Britain’s Josh Kelly was in ruthless mood against New Zealander Joshua Nyika in their welterweight clash. His resounding 3:0 win set up a mouthwatering quarter final bout with Mohammed Rabii, unbeaten in season V of WSB, after he defeated Argentine Alberto Palmetta.
The big super heavyweights closed out Friday’s action, with Joe Joyce and Mohammed Arjaoui struggling to land any meaningful blows as Joyce won through, while France’s huge Tony Yoka overcame China’s Zhibao Wang in an exhausting exchange of mutual boxing prowess.