USA opens Olympic boxing with 2 wins

American bantamweight Joseph Diaz Jr. won his first Olympic bout Saturday, earning him a shot at the boxer favored to win the weight class. Diaz, 19, dominated Pavlo Ishchenko of Ukraine, winning a 19-9 decision after holding a 3-point lead going into the third and final round. The triumph put Diaz into the second round, and his opponent Wednesday will be defending world champion Lazaro Alvarez of Cuba. Alvarez received a bye past the first round. The United States then ran its record to 2-0 on the opening day of boxing when middleweight Terrell Gausha advanced past Andranik Hakoby of Armenia. Their bout was stopped by the referee prior to the start of the third round. Ireland, expected to be a major boxing force at the London Olympics, advanced two fighters Saturday. John Joe Nevin pounded Dennis Ceylan of Denmark 21-6 in the bantamweight division and Darren O'Neill was a 15-6 winner over Muideen Akanji of Nigeria in the middleweight class. Kazakhstan is also expected to collect multiple boxing medals during the next two weeks, and the bantamweight from that nation, Kanai Abutalipov, advanced with a 15-7 decision over Wessam Slamana of Syria.