SUPER-HEAVYWEIGHT Joe Joyce, maintained his progress towards qualification for the Olympic Games in Rio with his fourth win of the season in the World Series of Boxing despite the British Lionhearts losing 4-1 to the China Dragons in Sanya.
Joyce is currently second in the WSB individual table. The top ranked super-heavyweight boxer at the end of the regular season will automatically qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Joyce’s first round stoppage of Vladan Babic was the highpoint of the evening for a Lionhearts team that was on the wrong end of three split decisions.
At welterweight another strong performance by Nottingham’s Ekow Essuman went unrewarded as he lost to Wei Liu. The same was true of the light-heavyweight contest which saw Oldham’s John Newell lose out despite a fine performance against Yibulayin Abudureyimu, with one judge scoring all five rounds in favour of the Lionhearts’ man. Defeats for the LIonhearts two overseas boxers, Kelvin De La Nieve, who lost the flyweight contest on a split, and France’s, Oualid Belaoura, who was defeated unanimously at lightweight, ensured the China Dragons avenged the defeat inflicted upon them by the Lionhearts in the reverse fixture at York Hall back in January.
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