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Savon in Sydney Another Olympics for the dominant Cuban boxer
NEW YORK (AP) -- The tall, power-punching teen-ager caused a stir, but the star of the 1986 world championships was Teofilo Stevenson, a Cuban boxer of mythic proportions. Stevenson, in the autumn of his career, won the super heavyweight title at those world championships in Reno, Nev., for his third world title to go along with three Olympic gold medals. Felix Savon, Stevenson's 18-year-old teammate, won the heavyweight gold medal that year, and firmly established himself as one of the sport's top amateurs. Fourteen years later, Savon will attempt to match Stevenson's Olympic achievement next month. Savon is "The Man" in the world of amateur boxing, a role he has played for almost a decade and a part he has relished. Not only does Savon match Stevenson in right-hand punching power, he rivals him in arrogance. There is a scene in S.L. Price's book about Cuban sports, "Pitching Around Fidel," in which a 14-year-old member of a boxing academy meets his hero. "I wish I could inject you with my blood, so you could be like me," the youngster was told by Savon, who besides the two Olympic gold medals has won five world titles and three Pan American Games championships. When the subject of the 2000 Olympics came up, Savon, usually uncooperative with journalists who are not Cuban, told Price, "I'm not even worried about 2000. I'm thinking about Athens in 2004." Both Stevenson, who retired in 1988, and Savon missed the 1984 and `88 Olympics because of Cuban boycotts. Stevenson won golds at the 1972, '76 and '80 games. The only other Olympic triple champion is Lazlo Papp of Hungary, a winner at 165 pounds in 1948 and at 156 in 1952-56. There are signs that the Savon who will go to Sydney is not the fighter who won his second Olympic gold medal in the 201-pound class four years ago at Atlanta. In 1997, he was stopped in a bout in Cuba by Juan Carlos Delis and he lost a 14-4 decision to Ruslan Chagaev of Uzbekistan in the final at the world championships that year. He also reportedly was knocked out in Cuba early this year and he squeaked by 4-3 in the final at the Cuban Olympic trials. When Stevenson's right-hand power began to fade, he could still rely on his boxing ability. Savon does not have that kind of ability, which could hurt him in Sydney. If he connects with an opponent, however, boxing ability means nothing. In the final at the 1998 Goodwill Games, Savon knocked out DaVarryl Williamson of Aurora, Ill., with one punch 55 seconds into the fight. In Sydney, Savon could meet Chagaev again or Michael Bennett of Chicago. He evened the score with Chagaev by outpointing him in the world championship quarterfinals last year. He was to fight Bennett in a bid for a sixth world title at those championships in Houston, but he refused to enter the ring for the final in protest over a decision that went against a Cuban boxer in an earlier bout. Savon, one of five children whose father was a bricklayer, was born in Guantanamo, about 11 miles from the U.S. naval base. Before he took up boxing at 13 years old, Savon was to enter the Cuban sports machine as a rower. It's a cliche, but Felix Savon took to boxing like a duck to water.
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