GB boxer James DeGale joins Tony Jeffries and David Price in quarter-finals

GB boxer James DeGale joins Tony Jeffries and David Price in quarter-finals
And then there were three. London middleweight James DeGale has become the third British boxer to reach the quarter-finals with a classy 11-5 triumph over American Shawn Estrada at the Beijing Workers Gymnasium.

James DeGale becomes third GB boxer to advance to quarter-finals.
Fighting clever: James DeGale becomes third GB boxer to advance to quarter-finals. Photo: Getty

But Birmingham flyweight Khalid Yafai found the experienced Cuban Andris Laffita Hernandez too hot to handle and went down 9-3.

"There was less pressure on me today, but it's still nerve-racking," DeGale said. "I was boxing all right but there's still more to come.

"Winning a medal would mean the world to me."

And DeGale insisted his mind remained focused on the job despite the distractions of the Olympic village.

"The food's pretty good and then there's a couple of really hot Brazilian women." he said.

Following a slow start, DeGale began spearing Estrada with long rights and lefts and, although the American upped the tempo, the Briton's superior movement and hand speed proved crucial.

The 22-year-old from Harlesden joins fellow survivors super-heavyweight David Price and light-heavy Tony Jeffries in the last eight, just one win away from a guaranteed bronze medal.

Price takes on Lithuania's Jaroslav Jaksto for a place in the semi-finals on Monday, Jeffries faces Hungary's Imre Szello, who he beat 11-10 at the recent EU Championships in Poland, on Tuesday and DeGale meets Kazakhstan's 2004 Olympic welterweight champion Bakhtiyar Artayev on Wednesday.

The Kazak caused an upset just before DeGale's fight by outpointing Russia's world champion Matvey Korobov 10-7.

"I'd have preferred to fight the Russian because he hadn't been beaten in five years, but the Kazhak's got there before me," said DeGale. He has lost to Artayev, but outpointed (and dropped) the Kazhak in the Sheffield multi-nations earlier this year.

Cuba's three-times Olympic champion Teofilo Stevenson would surely have approved of the dazzling display put on by his countryman Andris Laffita Hernandez to end Yafai's Olympic hopes.

One of Cuba's leading medal prospects, the vastly experienced Hernandez gave an exquisite demonstration of boxing off the back foot to carve out a 9-3 victory.

The 30-year-old southpaw piled on the points and although the Briton threw caution to the wind in the final two minutes, Hernandez continued to remain frustratingly elusive.

"I've no complaints. I got beat fair and square," said Yafai. "This time last year I was fighting in the European juniors and not even looking at Beijing. I'll definitely be at London 2012."