Great Britain performance director Rob McCracken hailed an emphatic 4-1 win for the GB Lionhearts over Mexico City Guerreros in the first leg of their World Series of Boxing quarter-final at Bethnal Green.
Wins for Joe Ward, Andrew Selby, John Joe Nevin and Joe Joyce put the hosts in a commanding position ahead of their daunting trip to Mexico for part two of the last-eight clash next week.
McCracken said: "It was a great performance tonight from the team but this tie is far from over and the Mexicans will be a very different proposition at home in next week's second leg when they will field their strongest boxers.
"The team has done very well tonight 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."
Ireland light-heavyweight Ward got the night off to a good start with a shut-out points win over opponent Christian Demaj, but another Irish fighter, Conrad Cummings, drew the Mexicans level with a points win over GB's Aston Brown.
Number one ranked flyweight Andrew Selby dazzled again in a points win over Aaron Alameda to put the Lionhearts back in front, and insisted afterwards: "I feel like I'm getting better every time. He was a tough opponent but I stuck to my game-plan."
Classy Nevin saw off Fernando Alvarez with the minimum of fuss, winning every round on each of the judges' scorecards, before heavyweight Joyce rounded off another successful night with a points win over tough Milutin Stankovic.
The Lionhearts' win means at least two wins from five in the return leg next week will be enough to take them through to the semi-finals of the competition, which has a one million Euro £852,000 prize fund at stake for the eventual winners.
