The small welt on James DeGale's right cheek will quickly disappear. What may take longer to heal, in the aftermath of the Olympic gold medallist's professional debut, is the mental scarring inflicted by the jeers which greeted his points victory.

DeGale was back in the gym today, for a debrief with trainer Jim McDonnell where the 23-year-old Londoner will be told he should have done better against Georgian journeyman Vepkhia Tchilaia at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

Although the result over four rounds was never in doubt, DeGale failed to live up to his own hype. The middleweight's inability to really get at an opponent, who peeped from behind a solid defence just long enough to inflict that mark on DeGale's face, met with the disapproval of a crowd who had earlier seen Olympic team members Billy Joe Saunders and Frankie Gavin impressively mark their pro debuts with stoppages.

DeGale said: "I was disappointed about the reaction. It takes two to tango in a fight and if the other guy is throwing nothing back, it's very hard.

"I boxed all right but I'll go over the video with Jim and find where I can improve. It will come, I'm still very confident I can go all the way."

On entering the ring, DeGale had thrown one of his Olympic vests into the crowd as a gesture that he was shedding his amateur past. The truth is, though, he still fought too much like an amateur.

The same criticism could not be levelled at Saunders, whose well-directed power forced referee John Keane to rescue Hungarian Attila Molnar one minute and 47 seconds into round two.

Gavin, fighting at welterweight, stopped Georgia's George Kadaria in the fourth and last round but sustained a cut to the bridge of his nose in the process.