US boxer Shakur silences baying Rio crowd

American boxing hope Shakur Stevenson defied chants of “you’re gonna die” from a baying Brazilian crowd to comprehensively defeat a home hope at the Rio Olympics on Sunday.

The 19-year-old bantamweight prospect, whose style has drawn comparisons with Floyd Mayweather and is widely regarded as the best chance for US gold in the boxing, kept his cool in the 9,000-capacity arena to deservedly beat Robenilson De Jesus on unanimous points.

Stevenson, named after the slain rapper Tupac Shakur, was making his Olympic debut and now will contest a quarter-final on Tuesday against the Mongolian Tsendbaatar Erdenebat, also 19.

The United States have one men’s medal, a bronze for light-flyweight Nico Hernandez, in the bag in Rio — already an improvement on London four years ago when they failed to get on the podium.