A big right hand from Buatsi had the second seed La Cruz on the canvas midway through the bout, but the World Series of Boxing (WSB) star was still well ahead at the final bell, setting up a quarter-final against AIBA Open Boxing (AOB) fighter Hrvoje Sep of Croatia, who defeated Australia’s Aaron Spagnolo.

La Cruz is one of nine Cubans remaining in the competition, a list which doesn’t include two-time Pan-American Games champion Lenier Pero Justiz, who could find no answers to the attacks of Uzbekistan’s promising super heavyweight Bakhodir Jalolov.

Joining La Cruz in the last-eight of the light heavyweight division is Ireland’s Joseph Ward and Kazakhstan’s Adilbek Niyazymbetov, winners against Ukraine’s Oleksandr Khyzhniak and Syria’s Alaa Ghoussoun respectively earlier in the day.

It was a good start to day four of the World Championships for Uzbekistan with three of their boxers progressing through to the quarter-finals, despite a surprise defeat for Shakhobiddin Zoirov at the hands of China’s fleet-footed WSB fighter Jianguan Hu.

Filipino welterweight Eumir Marcial took on Spain’s Youba Sissokho N’Diaye with renewed vigour following a pep-talk with his idol Manny Pacquiao the day before, growing stronger as the contest went on to comfortably progress.

"I was so excited going in to the Championship knowing that my idol Manny Pacquiao would be coming to Qatar," said Marcial.

"His advice was to dominate the bout and be aggressive and I knew after the first round I could do that and enjoy the contest."

Earlier on in the flyweight class, Venezuela’s AMBC American champion Yoel Finol Rivas suffered a surprise defeat to Colombia’s Ceiber Avila Segura, while Kazakhstan’s WSB giant Olzhas Sattibayev narrowly overcame Bulgaria’s teenage sensation Daniel Asenov in a thrilling contest

Kazakhstan also boast a strong pedigree in the welterweight class, and defending AIBA world champion and WSB team champion Daniyar Yeleussinov marched on in the competition by defeating Belarusian Pavel Kastramin.

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 re-match of the Baku 2015 European Games final with France’s Sofiane Oumiha, who was victorious against Venezuela’s Luis Cabrera.

Brazil’s Robson Donato Conceicao showed why he will be among his country’s gold medal hopes at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with some swift attacking and solid defence against the resilient Russian Adlan Abdurashidov.

He will go on to face Britain’s Joseph Cordina in the quarter-finals after he proved too strong for North Korea’s Chol Guk Kwon.

Cordina’s compatriot Joshua Kelly was in ruthless mood against New Zealand’s Joshua Nyika in their welterweight clash.

His resounding 3-0 win sets up a mouth-watering encounter with Morocco’s Mohammed Rabii, unbeaten in Season V of the WSB, after he defeated Argentina’s Alberto Palmetta.

The super heavyweights closed out today’s action, with Britain’s Joe Joyce and Morocco’s Mohammed Arjaoui struggling to land any meaningful blows as the former won through, while France’s Tony Yoka overcame China’s Zhibao Wang in an exhilarating contest.

Cuba lead the team competition on the eve of the quarter-finals, followed by Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, both of which have seven boxers still in the running for medals.



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