The Great Silk Way Elite Boxing Tournament attracted a decent-sized crowd at a venue originally built to host the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest who were treated to seven bouts on the first day of the event, which is due to take place until Sunday (April 19).

In the only final to be contested on the opening day, Azerbaijan’s Anakhanim Aghayeva took the women’s flyweight title with a hard-fought win over teammate Aziza Abbasova.

It was a cagey affair until Agayeva stepped up a gear in the later rounds, and Abbasova struggled to deal with the power of her fellow Azerbaijani competitor as she succumbed to a unanimous decision from the judges.

The match also served as a European Games selection decider and the result means Agayeva will get to compete at Europe's first-ever multi-sport event at the expense of Abbasova.

“That was the deciding match and it will be me competing in the Games and not her,” she said.

“This was our first official fight but we have sparred together.”

Zaur Abdullayev, representing Azerbaijan for the first time following his switch from Russia, set up a quarter-final meeting with Cuban-born teammate Lorenzo Sotomayor in the men’s light welterweight category after he beat Turkey’s Adem Furkan Avci.

However, Abdullayev struggled at first as his Turkish opponent made inroads with a series of decent shots early on in what was a tense affair to start with.

The bout sparked into life in the third round though and the host boxer demonstrated superior fitness, eventually sealing a unanimous points victory.

His success followed a hard-fought all-Azerbaijani men’s flyweight bout between Masud Yusifzada and Elvin Mamishzada, which was won on a split points decision by Mamishzada.

Yusifzada had made an excellent start to the match-up, finding his range early on, but his compatriot slowly grew into the contest and he was the one to progress to the next round.

Elsewhere, Nikolay Veselov, who also represents Azerbaijan, got the better of Belarusian Viktar Murashkin in the men’s middleweight category to ensure he progressed to the semi-finals.

The Azerbaijani athletes did not have it all their own way however as Bulgarian Tinko Banabakov stunned the home crowd with a victory over former European light flyweight champion Salman Alizada.

The bout provided a great deal of entertainment as both boxers went on the offensive almost from the first bell, but it was Banabakov who managed to land the sterner blows which saw him seal a split decision win and with it a place in the last four.

There was also joy for Kazakhstan, who are expected to do well at this event following their excellent showing at the 2013 AIBA World Championships where they brought back a haul of four golds, two silver and a bronze.

Sanat Sadykov survived a tough scare against Turkey’s Tolgahan Ozturk in a frenetic affair which saw a series of wild swings miss their target by some distance.

Despite the slightly erratic nature of the bout it still provided some moments of real quality and Sadykov managed to squeeze through to the semi-finals.

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