Boxing | Amateur

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Clot nearly KO'd Teofilo Stevenson



Former Olympic Games great Teofilo Stevenson is recovering well after two weeks in hospital.

The three-time Games heavyweight champion, who also won three world titles during his long amateur career, was treated for an arterial clot.

The Cuban superstar said in Havana on Wednesday he had been admitted to hospital on January 13 after doctors detected a clot in an artery near his heart.

He spent 15 days in intensive care before being released last week.

The 59-year-old Stevenson said in an interview at his home in western Havana he was exercising and walking, as instructed by doctors.

He plans to return soon to his work as vice-president of the Cuban Boxing Federation. "I'm fine now," Stevenson said.

He refuted reports that he had been in a grave condition. "People called me from all over Cuba, from other parts of the world, even from Miami.”

Stevenson is one of only three boxers to who have won gold medals at three Olympics Games tournaments.

He was the champion in 1972 in Munich, in 1976 in Montreal and in 1980 in Moscow and won three amateur world titles.



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