European Amateur Boxing Champion Luke Campbell has drawn Mexico’s Ray Vargas in the first round of the amateur World Championships which starts on September 13 in Milan, Italy.

Campbell, a two-time ABA titlist, was crowned Bantamweight Champion at the European Championships in Liverpool last November.

His path to glory was not an easy one, made even more impressive given this was Campbell's European Championship debut.

In the quarterfinal, Campbell faced and defeated the Moldovan Olympic Bronze Medal winner, Veaceslav Gojan, before progressing to the final after an excellent 4-1 points victory over Germany’s Denis Makarov. More...

Despite the disappointment of Team Great Britain's Khalid Yafai’s defeat yesterday at the hands of Cuba's flyweight Andris Lafitta by a score of 9-3, James DeGale put in a great effort as he faced US ‘favourite’ Shawn Estrada in the second round of the Middleweight division.

Neither man scored in the first frame, but DeGale went up 3-1 against the American in round two. A bit of a messy contest with the two men looking clumsy.

DeGale improves to 3 up over Estrada as the third finishes at 6-3, then relaxes in the second half of the fourth and final round, affording himself a bit of ‘showboating’. DeGale wins 11-5 and secures his place in the quarter-finals.

Afterward, DeGale said “I didn’t box my best again...it was nerve-racking in there” but added that he “can’t wait for Wednesday”.

DeGale now faces tough Kazakhstani opponent -Bakhtiyar Artayev, who was third at the World Championships in Chicago last year. DeGale has fought Artayev twice before - winning against him in Sheffield recently.

DeGale is the third Brit to make it to the quarter-finals after team-mates David Price at super heavyweight and Tony Jeffries at light heavyweight were also successful.

The Cuban boxing team has been living up to it's reputation as the world's top amateur team as it continues to shred it's competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Today at Worker's Gymnasium, the victory train rolled on as Middleweight Emilio Correa hammered out an 18-4 victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko of the Ukraine, light flyweight Yampier Hernandez dominated Ukraine's Georgiy Chygayev 21-3 and flyweight Andris Lafitta defeated Great Britain's Khalid Yafai on points 9-3.

It was the same story yesterday but featherweight Idel Torriente did have a tougher time as he had his hands full with Mongolia's Enkhzorig Zorigtbaatar before pulling out a 10-9 win.

Bantamweight Yankiel Leon outpointed Kazakhstan's Kanat Abutalipov by a score of 10-3 while lightweight Yordenis Ugas closed out Friday's competitions for Cuba by outboxing Domenico Valentino of Italy 10-2. More...