Ecuador's Carlos Gongora has won the first light-heavyweight bout of the evening session despite a stirring late comeback from Azerbaijan's Vatan Huseynli.
Huseynli produced the cleaner work the opening round, striking with a straight right hand, but Gongora landed more to move into a 4-2 lead.
The Ecuadorian stretched his lead by one point in an evenly-matched second stanza.
Huseynli came out all guns blazing as he chased the bout in the third round, stunning Gongora with a couple of stiff shots.
The Azeri sensed that Gongora was starting to flag and pressed forward at every opportunity.
A cracking right hand caught the Ecuadorian flush, dazing him and forcing the referee to step in to deliver the count.
However, the judges felt that Huseynli had not done enough and handed Gongora a 9-8 victory.
Michael Penkman
