Reigning Olympic Champion and AIBA World Championships titleholder Vasyl Lomachenko claimed the gold medal at the 6th Nikolay Manger Memorial Tournament which was held in Kherson, Ukraine earlier this month.
No.1 in the AIBA Overall World Ranking, Vasyl Lomachenko competed at light welterweight in Kherson instead of his original lightweight. He had a great semi-final battle against Ukraine's World University Champion Denis Berinchik, who has also moved up a weight class. Lomachenko then enjoyed an easier route to the gold because his compatriot Nikolay Bochkov abandoned the fight in the second round.
At the strong tournament twelve nations competed for the medals in Kherson: Azerbaijan, Belarus, England, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Morocco, Russia, Tunisia, host Ukraine and Wales.
Ukraine's Denis Kozaruk claimed the host nation's first gold medal after beating Kazakh Youth Team member Erzhan Zhomart by 12:8 in the light flyweight final.
Moldova's superpower European Championships bronze medalist 21-year-old Alexandru Riscan triumphed over Tunisia's 19-year-old African Youth Champion Bilel Mohamdi in the semi-final but was defeated by Ukraine's newcomer Oleksandr Shepelyuk in the flyweight contest.
Ukraine's 20-year-old big hope Mikola Butsenko used his excellent footwork to win the bantamweight gold medal after beating teenager Oleh Prudkiy by 21:10.
The host nation's veteran Dmitro Bulenkov has been on the national squad since 2001 and used his experience to beat England's European Championships silver medalist and Commonwealth Champion Iain Weaver by a close 19:18.
Former European Junior Champion Denis Lazarev of Ukraine claimed the gold medal in the welterweight class after beating Moldova's Dmitri Belous by 14:11 and the host nation's Dmitro Mitrofanov then defeated 19-year-old Ivan Khomyak in the middleweight final.
Ukraine's Dmitriy Bulgakov did not compete in any major international tournaments yet but performed well in Kherson, where he was crowned for the first time in his career. Bulgakov eased to victory against Tunisia's best boxer Yahya Mkacheri in the semi-final and Belarus' Sergey Kuzmin in the final.
European Championships silver medalist Sergey Korneyev of Belarus moved up a weight class to heavyweight and had an incredible victory against Ukraine's icon Oleksandr Usyk. After Korneyev's great punches the referee stopped the contest and the Belarussian fighter won the heavyweight gold medal. It was Usyk's first loss in 2011 but the Ukrainian still has the biggest chance to win the gold at the upcoming European Championships in Ankara.
Israel's top-rated amateur boxer European Championships bronze medalist 23-year-old Youssef Abdelghani walked over to the gold medal because his Tunisian opponent Aymen Trabelsi was unable to enter the ring against him in the super heavyweight class final.
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