Felix Savon

Boxing

The decisive punch had already been delivered, a fierce right uppercut that pulverized Kwamena Turkson. The stout Swedish boxer fell forward and dropped to his knees before tumbling backward.

The bout was promptly stopped, but Felix Savon was not done.

He began moving quickly from the neutral corner toward his opponent. The referee was trying to remove the Swede’s mouthpiece. Didn’t Savon know it was over? Was he going to strike him again?

“Two people are better than one,” Savon said, moments after cradling his 200-pound opponent in his arms and helping him back to the corner. “He is a heavy man.”

The crowd at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum rose from their seats and applauded loudly. Most of them do not root openly for Cuban fighters, easily the nemesis of the U.S.

But they could not help cheering Savon, for they had not only been treated to the most dominating performance yet at the Olympic boxing venue but also to a surprise show of sportsmanship.

He is part class and part flash, as prominent a symbol as there is of Fidel Castro’s archaic sports system. Felix Savon has the fat content of celery and the right uppercut of Earnie Shavers.

Yet he will never turn pro. Savon’s allegiance to the revolutionary cause is firm. He plans to finish his amateur career in 2000, have more children and write his memoirs.

Savon is 28, four years shy of the mandatory Olympic boxing retirement age. He plans to attempt to equal Cuban superheavyweight Teofilo Stevenson’s three golds (‘72, ‘76, ‘80).