Taking advantage of the home crowd, Irish light heavyweight Joe Ward got the Lionhearts off to a perfect star with a unanimous points win over Mexico's Albanian fighter Christian Demaj.

However, Mexico's own Irish fighter Conrad Cummings quickly levelled the scores with a convincing win over the Lionhearts' Aston Brown at middleweight to make it 1-1.

But that was as good as it would get for Mexico as bantamweight star Andrew Selby scored a comfortable victory for the Lionhearts against Aaron Alameda to maintain his unbeaten record in the WSB before the home Ireland's Olympic silver medallist John Joe Nevin made it 3-1 to the home side with an easy win over Fernando Alvarez Diaz in the lightweight bout.

It was then left to heavyweight Joe Joyce to close the show in style as he claimed a unanimous victory over Milutin Stankovic to give the home side a 4-1 lead heading into the second leg of the quarter-final next Friday (March 29) at Foro Polanco in Mexico City.


Lionhearts performance director Rob McCracken hailed the win for the his side but admitted the British franchise still have a tough task to secure the win in the second leg of the quarter-finals, with Mexico set to name a much stronger line-up when they compete at home.

"It was a great performance from the team however this tie is far from over and the Mexican's will be a very different proposition at home in the second leg when we will be competing at very high altitude and the Guerreros will field their strongest boxers," said McCracken.

"The team has done very well and got us into a good position but there is no room for complacency and there is still a long way to go in this tie."

The 4-1 at York Hall means Lionhearts will go through to the WSB semi-final if they win just two of the five bouts in the second leg.

Sean McGoldrick, Sam Maxwell, Kaupo Arro, Babacar Kamara and Uaine Fa will box for the Lionhearts in Mexico City.

The Mexico Guerreros will progress to the semi-finals if they secure a whitewash 5-0 while a reverse 4-1 victory for the Mexico will lead to a box-off at light heavyweight.

Any other score will see the Lionhearts progress into the semi-final.

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