Boxing: Burke booster for England

Stephen Burke helped England get over the disappointment of a double defeat when he beat Li Liang Liang of China at the World Amateur Boxing Championships in Belfast today.

Burke’s bout was a rather scrappy affair, but he was landing the cleaner punches throughout although an 18-5 scoreline was a little flattering.

Earlier in the Odyssey Arena, Englishmen Matthew Thirlwall and Steven Bell both went out of the light-middleweight and featherweight competitions respectively.

Bell found himself completely outclassed by Turkey’s Ramazan Palyani and by the end of the third round, he was trailing by 15 points - leading to automatic termination for the contest.

Thirlwell, boxing in only his fifth international contest, showed tremendous courage against Damian Echemendia Austin from Cuba, but went down 30-6.

Palyani will now face Irish featherweight John Paul Campbell, who came through an absorbing encounter with Estonia’s Roman Pavlenkov, winning 10-7.

Campbell was trailing 3-2 after the opening round and despite being floored in the second, he drew the round 1-1.

The Irishman produced his best work in the third and led 7-6 going into the final round, which the Estonian seemed to just shade.

There was disappointment for the host nation at light-middleweight when Sydney Olympian Michael Roche suffered two counts and was comprehensively beaten 20-4 by Anatoli Kavtaradze of Georgia.

After a gruelling encounter in the lightweight division, American Verquan Kimbrough won on a count back of punches 69-67 against Khazakhstan fighter Serik Yeleuov.