I heard the news today that Cuban boxer Teofilo Stevenson died yesterday at the age of 60.
Boxing is pretty much a niche sport today, if not an outright joke, but it wasn't always that way, and if you can remember the Olympics of 1972, 1976, and 1980, you will remember that Teofilo Stevenson of Cuba won the gold medal in the heavyweight division in each of those three Olympiads. He not only won those golds, but he won them in the most convincing and devastating manner imaginable.
The politics of Castro's Cuba kept Stevenson an "amateur" and well within the Iron Curtain walls of Cuba, so Stevenson never got the chance to fight against the leading heavyweight professionals of the day, Ali, Frazier, and Foreman.
On PTI tonight, Mike Wilbon mentioned meeting Stevenson on a trip to Cuba in the 1990's. He remained one of the biggest sports heroes in his country up until the day of his death.
RIP Teofilo Stevenson.
No comments:
Post a Comment