'Greatest Amateur' dies at 60
Three-time Olympic Games heavyweight champion Teofilo Stevenson has died.
The Cuban with the devastating right hand and a gentlemanly demeanour was 60 years old. It is believed he died of a heart attack.
"The Cuban sporting family was moved today by the passing of one of the greatest of all time," said a statement read on the news in Havana on Monday night.
Earlier a sports official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Stevenson had suffered a heart attack.
Considered by some to be the most accomplished amateur boxer in history, Stevenson first won gold in 1972 in Munich and followed that up in 1976 at Montreal.
"The Olympic Games in Munich and Montreal are the fondest memories I have from my life; the best stage of my career," he said earlier this year.
In 1980, he won his third Olympic title in Moscow, becoming the second boxer to win gold at three separate games after Hungarian Lazlo Papp. Felix Savon, Stevenson's countryman, accomplished the feat in 2000.
Known on the island as "Pirolo," Stevenson was famous for his punishing right, polished technique, deft hand and footwork, and his sportsmanship.
He was born on March 29, 1952, to a family of modest means, in Las Tunas province in eastern Cuba. He fought in his first match at the age of 14, and two years later won his first international title in the Central American and Caribbean championship.
As his accomplishments grew, boxing fans began hoping that he would fight Muhammad Ali in “the fight of the century". But Cuba insisted that he should not lose his amateur status, and the bout never took place.
After Stevenson won his first world title in 1974, Sports Illustrated ran the headline: "He'd Rather Be Red Than Rich."
Stevenson won world amateur titles again in 1978 and 1986, but was forced to pass up a shot at a fourth Olympic gold when Cuba did not attend the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. He retired in 1988 after Cuba decided to skip the Seoul Olympics as well.
He passed up millions of dollars by not leaving Communist-run Cuba to turn pro, but expressed no remorse.
"I prefer the affection of 8 million Cubans," he once said.
In January, Stevenson spent 15 days in intensive care after doctors detected a clot in an artery near his heart. He was released in early February and was surprised at the outpouring of media reports that his condition was grave.
"People called me from all over Cuba, from other parts of the world, even from Miami," Stevenson said.
In his later years, Stevenson served as vice-president of Cuba's boxing federation and at the island's national sports institute. He had two children.
REUTERS reports that after the 1976 Olympics, US promoters offered Stevenson $5 million to turn professional and fight Ali, then professional heavyweight champion of the world.
But he stayed loyal to the Cuban revolution, which outlawed professional sports, and refused.
“"What is $1 million compared to the love of 8 million Cubans?" he said in turning down the fight.
