Olympic Boxing: Joe Joyce knocks out Davilson Dos Santos Morais

Joe Joyce made an explosive entrance to Rio 2016 as he knocked out Davilson Dos Santos Morais with the last punch of the first round.

The Team GB super-heavyweight had already forced his opponent from Cape Verde to take a standing count before he ended his first Olympic fight in spectacular fashion in the Round of 16 fight.

A simple overhand right caught Dos Santos Morais on the top of his temple as he was trying to back out of danger and although he made it back to his feet and the bell had gone, the referee rightly called it off.

It means Joyce is now Team GB's second knockout specialist so far along with light-heavyweight Joshua Buatsi and, much like his team-mate's last performance, he had his opponent in trouble from the start.

A couple of vicious combinations set the tone and, within a minute, the Cape Verde fighter was sent to his corner for a nick over his left eye to be examined, possibly caused by one of several ugly clashes close in.

Dos Santos Morais was allowed to fight on, but within seconds, Joyce had him in a neutral corner and as he stumbled and seemed to get his gloves tangled in the ropes, a brutal left and then a following right had him down for the first time.

Again he beat the count but was clearly struggling to cope, perhaps with the occasion and certainly with the quickfire and clinical punches Joyce let go.

The 30-year-old barely used his jab but had no problem breaking down Dos Santos Morais' limited defence and taking his first step towards following former super-heavyweight Olympic gold winners sparring partner Anthony Joshua, Audley Harrison and Lennox Lewis.

Joshua could well have been watching on in the Riocentra Pavilion 6, but even if he wasn't there, Floyd Mayweather and USA basketball stars DeAndre Jordan, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were all watching on, even if no American fighters were on Saturday night's card.

Joyce was not aware Mayweather was in attendance until somebody told him. "It's good to show him what I can do," said Joyce.

"It is good to get the first one done. He was a bit of an unorthodox opponent and got a bit messy inside, but it was good to land some powerful shots and get him out of there quickly."

Joyce will now face Bakhodir Jalalov, of Uzbekistan, in the quarter-final, as he stopped Venezuela's Edgar Ramon Munoz, in a similarly hard-hitting manor, although he had to wait until the second round.

Ireland's boxing hopes are down to just one in the men's tournament after defeats on Saturday for flyweight Brendan Irvine and welterweight Steven Donnelly.

Irvine was well beaten by Uzbekistans's Shakhobidin Zoirov, who won each of the three rounds 10-9 on all cards. Donnelly performed much better against Moroccan world champion Mohammed Rabii but lost a split decision with one of the three judges voting 29-27 in his favour after Rabii was penalised a point.

That leaves only bantamweight Michael Conlan to fly the Irish flag and he faces Aram Avagyan, of Armenia, on Sunday, although Katie Taylor is also yet to begin her bid for gold in the women's lightweight division. She will have her first fight on Monday against an as yet unconfirmed opponent.