Felix Savon

By Tim Padgett

It's no hype to call Felix Savon's boxing record Herculean: 266 wins, nine losses; six world amateur championships since 1986 and gold medals in the past two Olympics. You'd think a Cuban fighter who has owned the ring like that for the past 15 years could retire to a beach hammock with a tall glass of Havana Club and a Cohiba.

But Savon isn't merely a good boxer; he's a heavyweight, which in Cuba makes him the defender of a legacy. When the big men fight for Olympic gold, you can expect to see a Cuban in the ring. The legendary Teofilo Stevenson won three straight Olympic golds (1972, '76 and '80), and Savon is determined to join him in that exclusive corner.

At 32, Savon doesn't have the quickness of the younger fighters he'll face. But his devastating right hand still has enough punch to knock opponents into the next Olympiad. "Stevenson had his time--this time is mine," Savon told TIME as his five small children climbed his chiseled 6-ft. 5-in., 201-lb. frame at his Havana home. "I will give everything in my power to win that third gold medal." Savon would probably be fighting for his fourth, if Cuba hadn't boycotted the 1988 Games.

Most Cubans adore Felix--one reason that Fidel Castro tapped him to carry the Cuban flag at Sydney. Savon, from the rural town of San Vicente, is regarded by Cubans as a ninote (big boy), a gentle giant with a fierce family loyalty and a punishing work ethic. Savon's address is kept secret to thwart money-waving promoters like Don King. On flights, at hotels and around Havana, though, they find him. Yet he echoes Stevenson (and many Americans, for that matter) when he calls pro boxing "dirty and exploitive." "He is a real asset to Cuba," says Vice President and Cuban Olympic chief Jose Ramon Fernandez. "He is genuine."

Savon is genuinely fond of training too, one reason he's still a contender. "The adversary I fear most," he says, "is Felix Savon." He bounds into the ring over the top rope like a guy who just can't wait to get to work. "The little fights, the big important fights, they're all the same to me," he says.

If Teo Stevenson was a graceful Baryshnikov in the ring, Savon is a raging bull. He KO'd U.S. heavyweight DaVarryl Williamson in the finals of the last Goodwill Games with a crushing right to the jaw a minute into the first round. "Savon has done that magnificently," says Stevenson. "But he's not a technical fighter." And he has begun to pay for it. He won the world title in 1997 only because his opponent, who outpointed him 14-4 in the final, was later disqualified. The same year, Savon was knocked out in a tournament at home. As a result, says Cuban boxing expert Roberto Ramirez, "Felix has learned to use his left hand, keep his distance and not destabilize himself."

Assuming he has done his homework, Felix Savon will again be the one dishing out instability in Sydney.

--By Tim Padgett. With reporting by Dolly Mascarenas/Havana

With reporting by Dolly Mascarenas/Havana