Rio 2016: A savage Monday for the Team GB boxers as Lawrence Okolie suffers defeat by Erislandy Savon

It was shocking at times, too, to watch Anthony Fowler reduced to chasing shadows against the brilliant Kazak Zhanibek Alimkhanuly

Lawrence Okolie could not recover from a bad start (Getty)

It was an awful day for the British boxers on Monday in Rio with three of the four men in the Olympic ring losing against three of the best boxers in the world at their weights.

In the final fight of the night Lawrence Okolie was dropped and lost every round against the towering Cuban Erislandy Savon at heavyweight. In June Savon stopped Okolie in the opening round, but here in Rio there was a grim determination in Okolie's work, a desire, or lost cause perhaps, to survive.

Savon is the same Savon that dropped a disputed decision to Anthony Joshua at the last Olympics and this year he is favourite for gold; during his last Olympics Okolie was a novice, a fat kid working in a hamburger restaurant and watching Joshua's progress after his shifts for inspiration.

It was shocking at times to watch Anthony Fowler reduced to chasing shadows against the brilliant Kazak Zhanibek Alimkhanuly in their middleweight fight, and even more disturbing to see him on the canvas in round two. It is rare at this high level for a boxer of Fowler's calibre and experience to lose so heavily, outclassed and hurt repeatedly in all three rounds.

Fowler is the highest profile male member of the British boxing squad, feted by the professionals and never shy to promote his own Olympic dreams on social media. He is also brutally honest, which is a welcome trait in a boxer, and he knew early in the fight that Alimkhanuly was simply too good, but he just kept coming, even after the horrible knockdown.

It was, in short, a defeat with dignity, which is absolutely no consolation at the end of a four-year journey. He will now turn professional. Josh Kelly was the only winner in what was a scrappy fight against Egyptian Walid Mohamed, a southpaw spoiler of some distinction, at welterweight.

Kelly boxed with the brains that are so often neglected in the emotion of an Olympic debut and won all three rounds to take a clear decision. On Thursday afternoon Kelly, who walked away from boxing to gain nearly three stone in beer last Christmas, will be back in the ring against the number two-seed Daniyar Yeleussinov from Kazakhstan and it will be a lot more difficult.

The first British loser on the bleak day was Galal Yafai, who was working at Land Rover and boxing in social clubs in the Black Country this time last year. Sadly, little Yafai was drawn against the 19-year-old Cuban World champion Joahnys Argilagos and actually shaded the first, lost the second quite comfortably and probably did enough in the third and last round to take the session.

It was not enough, he lost a split decision and left the ring an angry man; it was not a bad decision, just a tight one. In the same light-flyweight division there was the first genuine shock of the tournament when inexperienced and raw Spaniard Samuel Carmona simply refused to lose against Belfast's double bronze medal winner Paddy Barnes, who carried the flag at the opening ceremony.

Barnes revealed that making the weigh had left him him weak and vulnerable. He looked a truly broken man when the Spaniard's hand was raised and there will surely be a lively inquest into the failure by the Irish authorities. Barnes qualified for Rio in June 2015 and has not had a competitive fight since.

There are still 9 members of the 12 in the British team fighting for medals and Monday's boxing in Rio worked as a perfect and cruel reminder that this is the only global event that really matters in the packed boxing calendar.