White and Burton move to within one win of securing a medal whilst Glynn secures memorable victory over long-term rival on day three in Sofia

THREE members of the GB Boxing squad secured victories on day three of the European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Ruby White (W51kg) and Abdul Burton (M55kg) moved to within one win of securing a medal with unanimous victories, while Elise Glynn (W57kg) earned a memorable win over long-term rival Irma Testa to reach the last 16.

There was disappointment, however, as Sacha Hickey (W65kg) and Mary-Kate Smith (W75kg) exited the competition following unanimous and split-decision defeats respectively.

Flyweight Ruby White got the day off to a flying start as she confidently defeated Serbia’s Nikolina Dzida via unanimous decision to progress to the quarter-finals in Sofia.

She will now face Turkey’s Olympic silver medallist Hatice Akbas on Tuesday, with a place in the semi-finals and a guaranteed medal at stake.

White said: “I really enjoyed that. I’m going to be so much better in my next fight. That’s just half of what I can do and what my skill set is like.

“My movement was really good. She kept trying to walk me down and I showed I could move for the full nine minutes. I just felt really elusive in there, it was flowing.

“If I win gold here, I’m a five-time European champion, so I’m no stranger to these big stages. I just want to keep doing well and performing and we’ll see where that takes me.”

Abdul Burton made it two wins from two as he reached the bantamweight quarter-finals with a dominant 5-0 display against Romania’s Adrian Preda.

The Englishman will now look to secure a medal at his first senior European Championships when he takes on the host nation’s Javier Ibanez Diaz.

Burton said: “Another three rounds banked, a few 10-8s in there, so I’m happy with my performance, but it’s back to the drawing board now. The next one’s for a medal.

“I’ve faced him before and he was trying some different tactics, but I stayed disciplined, let the backhands go over and happy days!

“It’s a big push now to get that medal, but it’s what I’m here for.”

Elise Glynn sealed the final victory of the day by finally getting the better of Italy’s two-time Olympian Irma Testa.

The pair had met on three occasions before this evening, with Glynn boxing well in each bout but finding herself agonisingly on the wrong side of 3-2 split decisions. One of those defeats meant she missed out on qualification for Paris 2024.

This evening, however, Glynn got the better of the Italian, recovering from being 3-2 down in the opening round to eventually win the bout via a 4-1 split decision.

She will now face Turkey’s Esra Yildiz on Monday for a place in the quarter-finals.

Glynn said: “It means a lot to me. She’s the reason I got onto the GB Podium squad in the first place. I boxed in October 2022 here in Bulgaria, I lost on a 3-2 and then I lost the Olympic qualifier in 2023 to qualify for Paris.

“Since then, I’ve not really been myself, I’ve been down. A lot of people thought I won that fight a few years ago. You can see by my emotion now just how much it means to me. I had to dig deep in that last round. Obviously, the nerves were high. She’s an Olympian, Olympic medallist, European champion. She’s just won the Mediterranean Games as well. I’ve not been as active this year, so this means the absolute world to me today.”

In tomorrow’s action (Sunday 20th September), we have five boxers in action, starting with bantamweight Lauren Mackie, who takes on Moldova’s Iulia Coroli at 12:00 UK time.

She will be followed by Chantelle Reid, who faces Denmark’s Ditte Frostholm in a light-middleweight contest at 12:30.

The final bout of the afternoon session involving a GB boxer is at 14:15, when Isaac Okoh takes on Poland’s Alexey Sevostyanov.

Moving into the evening session, Patris Mughalzai is first up as he faces Georgia’s Lasha Gagnidze at welterweight at 17:30.

Closing out day four at super-heavyweight will be Damar Thomas, who faces Turkey’s Mucahit Ilyas at 19:00.