Teofilo Stevenson is not well known by the world outside of his native home of Cuba. He had the option to become part of baseball or one-on-one competition. The communist government established schools to teach the sport of boxing. The Cuban government wanted the sports champions to meet and defeat the best in the rest of the world. Every four years, the Pan-American Games are held. They are similar to the Olympics, with all the nations in North and South American taking part. One year after losing to Duane Bobick, Teofilo was in Munich, Germany, representing Cuba in the Olympic super heavyweight division. He went on to win the gold medal. Cuba had its third world champion ad their heavyweights are popular all over the world. After Teofilo won the Olympic title, many promoters and managers outside of Cuba offered the champion almost two million dollars to become a professional. His ambition was to win three Olympic medals. In 1974, he fought and won the second most important amateur honor, the Amateur World Heavyweight Championship. In 1975, he won the Pan-American Games title that he had failed to win in 1971. In 1978, he retained his Amateur World Championship title. The following year he won a second Pan-American Games Championship. In the final bout of the 1980 games, Teofilo won a unanimous decision over the Soviet champion, Pyotr Zaev. This Olympic title put him in a class with only one other three-time Olympic boxing champion, the legend Hungarian, Laszlo Papp. There was a chance he could win a fourth Olympic title in 1984. Cuba refused to take part in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. A near-fatal accident at about this time ended the career of Teofilo Stevenson. A stove in his home exploded and he suffered serious burns over much of his body. Eventually he recovered from his burns. He would go on to teach and train the future amateur champions of his country. As a boxer, Teofilo Stevenson was feared for his accurate left jab, his overall hand speed, and the powerful right hand that helped him win his first gold medal. His boxing career was a case of what was and what might have been. In the world of amateur boxing his name stands at the very top. What might have been had he gone professional is something that will never be known.
