Word: felix
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...like atmosphere. For a TV watcher, this spectacle makes for great viewing. Watch some javelin during the lull between 100-m heats. Cut away to the Aquatic Centre, where Fu Mingxia, triple gold medalist, will dive for China. Flip to a few rounds of the legendary Cuban heavyweight fighter Felix Savon. Here's Marion Jones--she wants to be the first woman to win five track-and-field golds in one Olympics--warming up for the long jump, but before she leaps you can thrill to Ian Thorpe--"Thorpedo"--Australia's 17-year-old swimming sensation. Then there...
...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...
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...
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...
...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...