Win Some, Lose SomeLed by heavyweight Félix Savón, Cuba struck for two golds after dropping its first two finalsby Johnette Howard
THE CROWD whistled every so often in derision, but Cuba's Félix Savón, bless him, was trying to make this a good fight. He kept stalking Canada's David Defiagbon, and he kept throwing punches at the constantly retreating boxer, pounding Defiagbon even when he cowered against the ropes with his hands pressed tight against his headgear.
Cuba's gilt-edged reputation for turning out the best amateur boxers in the world was built by fighters like Savón, a five-time world champion with sledgehammer fists and Sidney Poitier looks. Of the two Olympic golds the 28-year-old Savón has now won at 200 pounds, the one he earned yesterday at Alexander Memorial Coliseum came much easier than the first.
Savón (left) drilled Defiagbon at will and rang up a second Olympic title.
photograph by
Defiagbon didn't score his first point in his 20-2 loss until 38 seconds remained in the second round. It was almost laughable when he sat down at his postfight news conference—smiling and blinking like a man who had just walked out of a plane crash somehow unscathed—and started the session by saying, "I just lost to a better boxer today."
No kidding.
Savón and Ariel Hernández, at 165 pounds, won Cuba's first two boxing gold medals of the Atlanta Games with convincing (yet stylistically unsatisfying) decisions. When the afternoon's six-bout card was through, it was telling that much of the postfight discussion centered on whether the Cubans' 2-2 split in their four bouts was a sign that their boxing juggernaut was finally slowing down after 24 years of steamrollering the rest of the world. Only Cuba could win two golds and two silvers in one day and—with three more boxers set to go on the Games' final, six-bout card today—be accused of slippage.
Hungary's István Kovács got the murmuring started by cobbling together a 14-7 win over Cuba's Arnaldo Mesa at 119 pounds. Two bouts later, in a rematch of the 1995 world championship bout at 148 pounds, three-time Cuban world champion Juan Hernández lost a questionable 14-9 decision to Oleg Saitov, a 22-year-old Russian Army fighter who thumped one glove on his chest and giddily asked, "Me?" when the decision was whispered to him in his corner immediately after the fight.
Afterward, Cuban coach Alcides Sagarra was so upset that some of Saitov's blows were counted, he slammed Hernández's headgear to the canvas and gestured angrily. Cuba—mighty Cuba—was off to a 0-2 start.
That left it up to Ariel Hernández—no relation to Juan—and Savón to restore their nation's pride, at least for a day. And they did. Hernández danced out of harm's way throughout his 11-3 win over Turkish 165-pounder Malik Beyleroglu. And Defiagbon might have needed smelling salts had his fight against Savón been four rounds instead of three.
In the first round, Savón growled angrily at himself after he saw an opening and just missed landing a whistling right hand to Defiagbon's head. By the third, Savón was measuring Defiagbon for a knockout. Savón had the crowd howling.
Cuba wasn't finished after all.
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