Nikki Bascome, the Bermuda boxer, played down his unanimous points victory over American George Quintero at the Highlands County Fair Convention Centre in Sebring, Florida, on Saturday night.

While the 23-year-old junior middleweight was pleased to come away victorious on his professional debut, he admitted that his ringcraft was not up to par.

“I did not perform to the best of my ability and I am my biggest critic,” said Bascome, who returned home last night. “Looking back at the tape, I saw things I normally do not do and I want to drill that into myself so it will not happen again.

“The win definitely boosted my confidence, but there is always room for improvement. This was just another learning experience and I know I have a lot of things I need to work on.”

The judges’ cards had the orthodox Bascome ahead at the end of each round of the four-round bout.

But victory did not come without a cost as southpaw Quintero inflicted some heavy punishment on his Bermudian opponent, who received a standing-eight count after being caught on the chin with a left hook in the second round.

“He was definitely tough and hit me hard twice in the fight,” Bascome said. “In the second round, I crossed my leg and he was a southpaw and I got caught and buckled and the ropes kind of saved me. I was dictating from the first round, but he caught me with a good one.”

Bascome also got tagged with another left hook in the final round before going on the counter-attack and ending the bout with a flurry of punches that confirmed a shutout on the scorecards.

“In the fourth round when I began to warm up and start landing all my shots, I got confident and got caught,” he said. “But, thanks to all the hard running and training, I was able to recover quickly.”

Bascome, who has tentative plans to box again next month, entered Saturday’s bout aware of what was at stake.

“It was really important for me to win that first fight because that is how you are going to get people to look at you and believe in your talents,” he said. “Every day leading up to the fight, Mr Rego [his trainer Allan “Forty” Rego] told me how important it was, so I trained very hard and disciplined myself and really buckled down.”

Bascome admits that boxing at the professional level is something that will take some time getting used to.

“I knew it was going to be different, but when you are actually in the ring and experience it, you feel it is actually a big step,” he said.

“The difference between amateur and pro is the gloves are smaller and there is no headgear. I am also not used to getting hit like that. It kind of took me off guard.”

Saturday’s bout was Bascome’s first since recording a points victory in his last appearance as an amateur over Matthew Abregu, of Argentina, at Berkeley Institute 12 months ago.