Olympic Boxing: Britain’s Great Eight Becomes The Magnificent Seven!

Despite the disappointment that Olympic Medal contender and current world lightweight champion Frankie Gavin was sent home for being three pounds overweight in Beijing, the remaining ‘Boxing Brits’ have gotten off to great start.

The first to box was middleweight James DeGale. The 22 year old DeGale had declared that ‘a medal would be lovely’ but that this was ‘all preparation for 2012’.

DeGale faced Egyptian Mohamed Hikal and after a tough start- losing the first round 3-2 to his opponent - DeGale settled in and dominated the second round to score 5-3 at the half-way point.

Gaining in confidence, DeGale looked to be enjoying the second half of the contest as he relaxed into the fight, finally winning by 13-4 after four rounds.

DeGale is now scheduled to fight American boxer Shawn Estrada.