RIP Teofilo Stevenson

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/11/4554610/official-olympic-boxer-teofilo.html

He won three gold medals for Cuba. Probably the best amateur boxer of all time.

 

I often wondered how he would have fared, had he faced the top heavyweights of his time.

 

RIP. I, too, wondered what might have been.

 

I think he'd have won the heavyweight title for two reasons: 1. He had very quick hands IIRC, plus he was always in superb condition. 2. The heavyweight division at that time (late 70s-early 80s) was not particularly challenging. Larry Holmes was the only really good heavyweight I can remember from that era.

 

Not a boxing fan, but one of the best I've ever watched. Cat quick, no fat.... RIP

 

The obit mentions that there were those who wanted to see him fight Ali, but that Cuban officials wanted him to retain his amateur status. Now that would have been a fight to see.

 

I sure wish he had fought Ali. Would have been a classic.

 

Yeah, agreed. That would have been a fight for the ages. Funny that Ali lived longer.

 

Ali beat some of the finest pro heavyweights in history, guys like Frazier, Foreman and Liston, he would have beaten the best amateur heavyweight too. I always thought Felix Savon, who also won three Olympic golds, had all it took to be a great pro too.

 

Having seen Stevenson up close in 1992 when he coached Cuba's boxing team at the Olympics, I can say he wasn't as big as Ali, or at least as broad as Ali, and that would've been a considerable handicap.

 

IMHO, Stevenson, in his prime, was as close as a heavyweight could get to being called pound-for-pound the best boxer around. That's usually reserved for the lower-weight guys, but this guy was amazing.

RIP.

 

Only needed his jab to drop guys.
He was happy to not make 8 million dollars...rather he made 8 million Cubans proud.
And you could barely see Castro's lips move when Stevenson said that.