Savon bags heavyweight gold, creates history

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Sydney: Cuba's Felix Savon, bleeding and bruised but still unbeatable, won his third successive heavyweight boxing gold on Saturday and joined compatriot Teofilo Stevenson in Olympic history.

Savon, now 33 years old, capped what must be his final appearance in an Olympics by beating Russian Sultanahmed Ibzagimov to match the three heavyweight golds won by the mighty Stevenson between 1972 and 1980.

They are the only boxers ever to twice defend their Olympic titles, although Hungarian Laszlo Papp won three golds in different divisions, and the only ones to strike genuine fear into opponents for a decade each.

Many comparisons can be made between the two muscled giants, whose careers overlapped but briefly.

Stevenson won the super-heavyweight gold medal in his international farewell at the 1986 world championships in Reno, Nevada, while 18-year-old Savon burst on to the scene there to take the heavyweight title.

Both refused to fight professional champions, with Stevenson famously turning his back on an enticement to fight Muhammad Ali with the words "what is a million dollars compared to the love of 11 million Cubans?"

Savon has beaten many who went on to earn millions in the pro ranks, knocking out New Zealand's current professional hope David Tua in 1992 for example, and similarly ruled out a bout with Mike Tyson in the 1990s.

Yet his main childhood sport was rowing, not boxing.

Love of water

"Being a boxer couldn't have been further from my mind," recalled Savon in "In The Red Corner", a book on Cuban boxing by British writer John Duncan published this year.

"I'd never seen a proper boxing bout because there wasn't any television or even electricity where I lived."

"One day a sports coach came to the school looking for volunteers to try out in rowing. I loved the water and I could swim like a fish, so I put my hand up."

Savon failed to make the grade but his size and athleticism made him a natural puncher.

His rowing team-mates already called him Teofilito (Little Teofilo), after Stevenson, because of his size.

"People say to me now that they knew I would be a champion from the first day that I entered boxing," Savon told Duncan.

"I honestly had never heard of Teofilo Stevenson until people egged me on, telling me to jump over the ropes like Teofilo did. I didn't like the idea much, but I did it...As time went by, I tried to copy Teofilo in every way I could."

"The truth is that Teofilo was one of the main psychological influences on me."

"He was the best boxer of his generation and when we sparred, he took me to places that I didn't think anyone could take me. I thought I was untouchable, but he showed me what real greatness was."

Savon no longer jumps youthfully over the ropes, preferring instead the equally-intimidating entrance of stepping over the ropes as if they were nothing more than a minor obstacle.

Six in a row

By the age of 16, Savon was national champion in Cuba and Reno marked his international debut. It was to be the first of six world titles in a row.In Reno, he was nearly disqualified for an alleged low blow while in Budapest in 1997, he lost to Uzbekistan's Ruslan Chagaev in a final that has been the subject of much debate about the judging and refereeing.

Savon was later re-instated as champion after Chagaev was disqualified for previously fighting as a professional. That fight still ranks as his only defeat in a major international tournament in the past 14 years.

The Cuban might have made it seven world titles in a row last year but, after making it to the final, was unable to compete after Cuba walked out in protest at the judging.

There has been little argument over his Olympic performances over the years, however.

Like Stevenson, Savon could have claimed four golds had Cuba not boycotted the 1988 Games in Seoul just as they refused to participate in the 1984 Los Angeles Games and prevented Teofilo from taking a fourth title in a row.

Savon, using his mighty reach and crushing right jab and uppercut to devastating effect, walked away with the title in Barcelona in 1992 and was an equal certainty in 1996.

In Sydney, the talk was of his legs slowing down and the power draining from his ageing arms.

Professional WBA heavyweight world champion Evander Holyfield said the Cuban was looking old. While that may be the case, he was also looking too good for the rest.



(c) Reuters Limited.