Rio 2016: Taylor handed bye to Rio quarter-finals

Irish boxer Katie Taylor won an Olympic gold medal in 2012

Ireland's Katie Taylor will begin her Olympic title defence at the quarter-final stage after receiving a bye in the boxing draw for the Rio Games.

Lightweight Taylor will take on Finland's Mira Potkonen or Adriana Araujo of Brazil on 15 August.

Five Irish fighters have been handed byes including London 2012 medallists Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan.

Light-flyweight Barnes and fellow Belfast boxer Conlan, a bantamweight, begin in the last 16.

Barnes goes into the ring against Spain's Samuel Carmona Heredia or Armenian Artur Hovhassinyan on 8 August.

The winner between Armenia's Aram Avagyan and Arashi Morisaka of Japan will face Conlan six days later.

There were also byes for light-heavyweight Joe Ward and middleweight Michael O'Reilly.

Belfast flyweight Brendan Irvine meets Shakhobiddi Zoirov of Uzbekistan in the first round while Ballymena's Steven Donnelly fights Algerian Zouhir Keddache in the welterweight first round.

Lightweight David Oliver Joyce is also in first-round action, with Andrique Allisop of Seychelles his opponent.