Felix Savon Biography

Félix Savón is the Cuban boxer who won three Olympic gold medals as the dominant amateur heavyweight of the 1980s and 1990s. Félix Savón was born in rural Cuba and grew up watching legendary heavyweight (and fellow Cuban) Teófilo Stevenson win Olympic gold three times. Savón stepped in the ring himself at age 14, and at age 16 won the Cuban junior national championship. By 1985 he was Cuba’s senior national heavyweight champion, known for his impressive height (6’5”) and awesome fingertip-to-fingertip reach of 82 inches. Savón went on to win won the Cuban national championship 13 times during an impressive run from 1985-98. Cuba boycotted the 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul, where Savón would likely have been favored at age 20. Instead he went on to win Olympic gold at Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000). Savón won the heavyweight division at the World Amateur Championships six times, in 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997; he took silver in 1999 when he forfeited his last match to join the rest of the Cuban team in a protest over the tournament’s officiating. Like Stevenson, Savón refused all offers to turn pro and remained an amateur for life. The New York Times called him “one of those perfectly crafted exports from Cuba, an unconditional success as an athlete and unconditional supporter of the political system in which he lives.” Savón retired after his win at the 2000 Olympics, with an overall career record of 362 wins and 21 losses.