Teofilo Stevenson

[Mibbes Aye]

Sad to hear of his death, at a relatively young age.

Growing up, I remember him being considered as a sporting great, not least for his Olympic achievements. This was in a time before TV coverage was so pervasive so his fame didn't extend as far as it probably should beyond the boxing fraternity, though conversely he was still a well-known name and recognised as potentially the best fighter never to turn pro. There's certainly plenty decent footage of him at his best.

[chinaman]

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Sad to hear of his death, at a relatively young age.

Growing up, I remember him being considered as a sporting great, not least for his Olympic achievements. This was in a time before TV coverage was so pervasive so his fame didn't extend as far as it probably should beyond the boxing fraternity, though conversely he was still a well-known name and recognised as potentially the best fighter never to turn pro. There's certainly plenty decent footage of him at his best.

stevenson was an olympic legend, not just a boxing legend, 3 olympic golds,3 worlds, 2 pan-american umpteen others and cuba boycotted quite a few that he would have been red hot favourite to win. a true boxing legend

[Pretty Boy]

Pirolo was an absolutely outstanding amateur boxer.

Wasn't alive to see him in his heyday but an old boxing coach pointed me in the direction of a few of his videos. He was exceptional.

A fight with Ali would have been a cracker. Whatever ones view on Cuban politics his decision not to defect and remain an amateur is one that deserves credit, if it was truly his decision.

RIP to a man who, in other circumstances, would have been a hall of famer. A boxing, Olympic and Cuban legend.

[Kato]

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A fight with Ali would have been a cracker.

I remember an edition of World of Sport had a round by round account of a (primitive) computer generated bout between Stevenson and Ali - long before computer graphics became the norm and the findings came out as print-outs but afaicr Stevenson won. Whether this was rigged in an attempt to encourage him to defect I don't know. A story was also floated around that Ali offered to fight him behind closed doors (square go, nae biting) but again maybe a myth although this was in the days when Ali was fighting exhibitions against feather weights and Karate Champions so who knows.

RIP, despite his lack fame a true legend and an awesome boxer to watch.

[heretoday]

Back when there was a bit of mystery about sport Stevenson had a strange charisma. He inhabited a sort of parallel world and we were told that he was at least as good as Ali and Frazier etc. Every Olympics we'd get a rare glimpse of him knocking down opponents and then he'd withdraw for another four years.

He stuck to his principles. He seems to have had a good life.

Another mysterious figure was Russian superhuman goalie Lev Yashin - the man in black - whom we saw even less of.