Paddy Barnes beats Thomas Essomba in light-flyweight contest

Belfast light-flyweight Paddy Barnes beat Cameroon boxer Thomas Essomba to progress to the last eight of his division at the London 2012 Games.

Barnes dominated the fight, winning all three rounds, and enjoyed a comfortable 15-10 winning margin at the end.

The Irish Olympic bronze medallist from the 2008 Beijing Games led world number four Essombah 5-3 after round one and 11-7 after the second round.

Barnes is now just one win away from securing another Olympic bronze medal.

Victory in his quarter-final would see him become the first Irish boxer to win medals at successive Games.

Essombah's accuracy of punching let him down as he lost out to the 2010 European champion in the 49kg division.

Barnes received a bye into the last 16 while Essomba beat Abdlali Darra 13-10 at the last 32 stage.

Saturday's win sets up a quarter-final with Devendro Laishram on Wednesday after the Indian fighter eliminated Mongolia's Serdamba Purevdorj 16-11.

The man who beat Barnes in China, Zou Shiming, could await the Holy Family man in a repeat of the Beijing semi-final of four years ago, but the 25-year-old insisted revenge was not on his mind.

"I'll fight anybody but I don't want to look too far ahead otherwise I could lose my next fight. It's good to ease into the competition and now that my first fight's out of the way I can improve on it," said Barnes.