Felix savon: best amateur boxer

[Deeznuts]

He beat David Tua, Shannon Briggs,Sultan Ibragimov, Davarryl Williamson and many more............out of 362 fights he only lost 21. Too bad he never was able to turn pro because of the government in Cuba. Look him up on youtube, he knocked most of these guys out with that killer right hand.

[!!Captain]

He didn't do that well with Chagaev though, they fought twice and were 1-1, I think.

[Deeznuts]

1-1 if its not well he did well enough to beat him once

[MickyHatton]

He beat David Tua, Shannon Briggs,Sultan Ibragimov, Davarryl Williamson and many more............out of 362 fights he only lost 21. Too bad he never was able to turn pro because of the government in Cuba. Look him up on youtube, he knocked most of these guys out with that killer right hand.

I think he has as good a shout as anyone perhaps with the exception of his Countryman and predecessor Teófilo Stevenson who won Three Olympic and Three World Amateur Gold Medals at Heavyweight.

Many tipped Stevenson to beat Ali if they ever met (I believe that promoters tried to arrange it). He had 302 fights and only lost 22.

[Zerwas1]

How old was Savon when Chagaev beat him....

[Jim Jeffries]

He beat David Tua, Shannon Briggs,Sultan Ibragimov, Davarryl Williamson and many more............out of 362 fights he only lost 21. Too bad he never was able to turn pro because of the government in Cuba. Look him up on youtube, he knocked most of these guys out with that killer right hand.

Yeah Savon was pretty awsome, 3 gold medals and a pretty impressive resume. Plus at 6'6", he had the size to give any of our top heavies trouble. People take for granted part of the reason the U.S. dominated the heavyweight division for most of the last century is that good fighters from communist countries like Cuba and Russia couldn't fight professionally (Russia until the early 90's that is.)

[!!Captain]

How old was Savon when Chagaev beat him....

I believe that Savon was 30 and Chagaev 19, it was back in 1997.

[Zerwas1]

I believe that Savon was 30 and Chagaev 19, it was back in 1997.

I read an article which says that the fight ended 14 - 4 , they deducted points from Savon without reason and the cuban team protested and so on...

[!!Captain]

I read an article which says that the fight ended 14 - 4 , they deducted points from Savon without reason and the cuban team protested and so on...

Where did you read that? I never heard about deductions and protest. I heard Chagaev was stripped of the title after they found out that he had 2 professional fight but that's about it.

[Zerwas1]

Where did you read that? I never heard about deductions and protest. I heard Chagaev was stripped of the title after they found out that he had 2 professional fight but that's about it.

That too.

http://www.boxingpress.de/bp-inside-ruslan-chagaev.htm

m Oktober 1997 folgte dann Chagaevs großer Durchbruch bei den Amateuren, zunächst jedenfalls. Er besiegte in Ungarn den legendären Felix Savon (Kuba) mit 14:4 und wurde Amateurboxweltmeister im Schwergewicht. Doch sein Triumph stand von Anfang an unter keinem guten Stern. Das kubanische Team protestierte heftig gegen die Ringrichterleistung und das Urteil. Der mehrfache Weltmeister und Olympiasieger Savon war zweimal zu Unrecht verwarnt und mit einem Punkteabzug bestraft worden. Assistenztrainer Julian Gonzalez griff sogar den türkischen Ringrichter Garip Erkuyumen tätlich an, der schon bei der sehr kontroversen Punktniederlage von Ariel Hernandez gegen Zsolt Erdei (BP-Nr. 6 im Halbschwergewicht) negativ aufgefallen war. Selbst der kubanische Cheftrainer Sagarra war außer sich vor Wut und wurde später für seine Beschimpfungen der Funktionäre vom Amateurboxverband für zwei Jahre gesperrt.

[...] He(Chagaev) defeatd legandary Felix Savon (Cuba) 14:4 and won the amateur world championship at heavyweight. [...] the cuban team protested heavily against the referee's work and the decision. Savon was warned two times without reason and got a point deduction. second trainer Julian Gonzalez attacked the turkish judge Garip Erkuyumen....