LEVENSHULME'S Joe Murray has been beaten in his opening bout of the Olympic boxing tournament.

The 21-year-old bantamweight was beaten 17-7 by home favourite Yu Gu of China in a messy fight that saw both men given penalties for holding.

Murray struggled to get to grips with the aggressive style of his opponent who raced into a 4-0 first-round lead, which was extended in the 2nd round as Yu stifled the Mancunian's attempts to find a rhythm.

The partisan home crowd roared their fighter on throughout, and it could be said that the judges were affected by that support, failing to give Murray points that he had clearly registered on several occasions.

But as Murray tried to throw caution to the wind in the closing stages, Yu was able to cleverly avoid most of the attacks as well as pick his opponent off on the counter-attack to end as a deserved winner.

Reaction in this week's Reporter - see below to read back on live text commentary from the fight ...