The visiting team arrived in the capital with formidable Olympic champions Vasyl Lomachenko (pictured top left) and Oleksandr Usyk in their ranks but it was hard-hitting Dmytro Mytrofanov who stole the show in the very first bout of the evening as he stopped the Lionhearts' Olympic silver medallist Fred Evans in the middleweight contest.

In a phenomenal display, Mytrofanov completely outclassed the Evans with a constant barrage of punches before a huge left hook to the body in the second round forced the Welshman to take a knee and a count.

Mytrofanov continued his unrelenting pace in the third with more punishing blows forcing a stoppage and giving the visitors a surprise 1-0 lead.

It was then the turn of Ukraine's Lomachenko to take to the ring in the lightweight contest against the Lionhearts' Sam Maxwell (top right).

The 24-year-old lightweight from Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi is widely considered the best pound-for-pound Olympic boxer on the planet having won gold medals at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012, while he is also a double World Championship champion.

And the Ukrainian's class told as Lomachenko dominated Maxwell to claim an easy points win and increase the visitor's lead to 2-0.


The Lionhearts' Andrew Selby reduced the deficit to 2-1 in the bantamweight contest as the Welshman outclassed Ivan Ilnytskyy on points to maintain his unbeaten WSB record and the scores were then levelled up at 2-2 as Irishman Joe Ward secured another home win at light heavyweight with a comfortable points win over Denys Solonenko.

It left a winner-takes-all decider in the heavyweight contest between the Lionhearts' impressive Londoner Joseph Joyce and the formidable Usyk, the reigning Olympic and AIBA world champion.

Usyk was simply too good as then southpaw took all five rounds to give his side the overall victory on a night of classy boxing action in the WSB.

It meant the Lionhearts' first home loss in the WSB but the British franchise had already secured their place in the knockout stages ahead of the bout.

After finishing third in Group B, the Lionhearts now face a tough two-leg quarter-final against the Mexico Guerreros, second in Group A.

The Lionhearts' home bout against the Mexican franchise will be staged at York Hall on March 22.

The Ukraine team had to settle for fourth place in Group B and will face the Azerbaijan Baku Fires, who topped Group A.

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