USA's Shakur Stevenson wins Olympic opener in impressive style; Gary Russell advances

USA bantamweight Shakur Stevenson won his Olympic debut Sunday with an impressive unanimous decision against Brazil's Robenílson Vieira de Jesus at the Riocentro Pavilion 6 in Rio De Janeiro.

Stevenson's quickness and timing along with an effective uppercut were center stage at the Olympic competition as he consistently beat the Brazilian to the punch, and made Vieira de Jesus look silly at times as he flailed at Stevenson, coming up with nothing but air most of the time.

"I didn't have a gameplan going in," said Stevenson, who said he has not fought in international competition since March. "I wanted to see what he was going to do. I realized he got long arms and tried to stay on the outside and make it ugly. So I realized I had to press him out, go forward.

"I saw he had a cut so I kept hitting it, hitting it, rubbed my head against it a little bit and I went after the fight. That was my gameplan.

"He got tired at the end, I started teeing off on him, and once I started teeing off on him, I'm like, I got this."

Stevenson, who was booed loudly as he entered the ring, won by scores of 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 to advance to the quarterfinals. As much as Stevenson dominated the Brazilian, it's hard to believe Vieira de Jesus won rounds on any of the judges' scorecards.

"The crowd was real exciting, but when I got there and they started booing, I got a little nervous," Stevenson said.

With the victory, Stevenson, 19, from Newark, N.J., raised his record in international competition to 24-0.

Stevenson advances to the quarterfinals on Tuesday against Mongolia's Erdenebat Tsendbaatar.

Shortly after Stevenson's victory, U.S. light welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell won a split decision against over Thailand's Wuttichai Masun. Now 2-0 in Olympic competition, Russell will move on to the quarterfinals on Tuesday against Fazliddin Gaibnazarov of Uzbekistan.

(Photo of Stevenson, right, during his fight with Robenílson Vieira de Jesus by Geoff Burke, USA TODAY Sports)