BOXING Cuba's Savon beaten
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from October 1997.
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The end of the bout was marred when one of the Cuban assistant coaches, apparently angry over the decision, entered the ring and struck referee Garip Erkuyumcu of Turkey, requiring security to intervene and restore order.
The Cubans protested the result, which Chagaev won by a score of 14-4. The Uzbek, who only turned 19 last week, was ahead 4-1 after two rounds but landed several clean punches in the later rounds on his 30-year-old opponent. "I believe it was a clean bout. It was impossible for the judges to make such a big mistake," Chagaev said. "I met Savon a couple years ago. Now, he did not look so strong. I had simple tactics: get close, as close as possible to him. It seems Savon is getting old," he added.
The new king in heavyweight began boxing six years ago. He finished his studies this year in the School of Olympic Hopefuls. The other big surprise was Hungarian Zsolt Erdei, who outpointed two-time Olympic and two-time world champion Ariel Hernandez of Cuba 8-2 for the middleweight title.
"We knew the Cuban was very skillful on his legs, so I was not supposed to hit him hard because he would avoid the blow and hit me before I resumed my position again," Erdei explained. He admitted that the margin he won by may be exaggerated but he felt he was definitely better. "The 8-2 looks quite impressive. It was a much tougher fight. I felt I won by 2-3 points," Erdei said. "First, I couldn't believe it but now it feels as if it was the most natural thing in the world." The rest of the bouts went according to predictions, with Russia claiming three of the lighter weight titles and Esquirol Maikro Romero winning Cuba's only crown of the day by outpointing Roel Velasco of the Philippines for the 48-kilogram (106-kilogram) gold.
Raimkul Malakhbekov of Russia beat Waldemar Font Quintero of Cuba in the 54-kilogram (119-pound) division final; countryman Alexandr Maletin outpointed Mongolian Tumentsetseg Utumen for the 60-kilogram (132-pound) title.
