THE 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES : Boxing : Cubans Sweep Into Finals and Promise a Gold Rush

Cuba’s rampaging boxing team defeated two more Americans Thursday night, went 5 for 5 and stormed into this weekend’s finals of the Pan American Games boxing tournament in position to win 10 of the 12 available gold medals.

The American team, in a best-case scenario, could win five gold medals Saturday and Sunday, if its finalists go 5 for 5. But after another Cuban wave swept across the final night of semifinals before 3,700 at the Indiana Convention Center, that appeared to be a remote possibility.

Only U.S. featherweight Kelcie Banks looks like a lock this weekend, against Dominican Emilio Villegas. The Cubans, to those who’ve watched the entire tournament, look like solid favorites in all of their finals bouts, and three of them are USA-Cuba matchups.

The U.S. went 2 for 4 Thursday night, with heavyweight Michael Bent showing a granite chin and some courage when he lost a 5-0 decision to Cuba’s world champion, Felix Savon. U.S. light-middleweight Frank Liles was outwrestled and out-bearhugged by Cuba’s Orestes Solano, also 5-0.

The two U.S. winners were bantamweight Michael Collins, who defeated Puerto Rico’s Rafael DelValle, 5-0, and light-welterweight Todd Foster, who posted a 5-0 against Brazil’s Wanderly Oliveria.

Here are this weekend’s gold medal bouts:

SATURDAY

106 pounds--Michael Carbajal (U.S.) vs. Luis Rolon (Puerto Rico).

119--Manuel Martinez (Cuba) vs. Michael Collins (U.S.).

132--Julio Gonzales (Cuba) vs. Jose Perez (Venezuela).

147--Juan Lemus (Cuba) vs. Ken Gould (U.S.).

165--Otis Grant (Canada) vs. Angel Espinosa (Cuba).

201--Juan Diaz Nieves (Argentina) vs. Felix Savon (Cuba).

SUNDAY

112--Adalberto Regalado (Cuba) vs. David Griman (Venezuela).

125--Emilio Villegas (Dominican Republic) vs. Kelcie Banks (U.S.).

139--Todd Foster (U.S.) vs. Candelario Duvergel (Cuba).

156--Orestes Solano (Cuba) vs. Freddy Sanchez (Puerto Rico).

178--Nelson Adams (Puerto Rico) vs. Pablo Romero (Cuba).

201+--Lennox Lewis (Canada) vs. Jorge Gonzales (Cuba).

Call it the Pan Am Games’ Cuban Invitational Boxing Tournament. Coach Alcides Sagarra’s juggernaut is 26-2 after eight sessions and no one will be shocked if they fly home to Havana 36-2 when it’s all over Sunday. The Americans are 16-7, 2-7 against Cubans.

The task left for U.S. Coach Roosevelt Sanders is to hope his five finalists can top the two gold medals the 1983 U.S. Pan Am boxing team won at Caracas. Cuba won 10, and four Cubans who box this weekend are defending champions--Duvergel, Solano, Romero and Jorge Gonzales.

No one can say they weren’t forewarned. Sagarra, before the tournament, said the team he brought here was one of the strongest Cuban teams he’s had.

In the few interview sessions reporters have had with Cuban boxers, they’ve said all the right things: How talented the Americans are, what good futures they have, what good boxers they are, blah-blah-blah . . .

But Solano, Cuba’s finalist in the 156s, switched tracks before Friday’s session. Standing under the bleachers with teammates Romero and Lemus, he sounded downright cocky in a translated conversation with about 10 reporters.

When asked about the large number of his teammates headed for the finals, he responded by implying all other amateur boxing programs are second rate.

“It shows the importance of our emphasis on physical conditioning and fitness,” he sniffed. “There is no way the Americans can compete with us because they’re not physically able. They (U.S. coaches) keep putting new teams against us (instead of sticking with one team).”

Of the finals, he added, through the translator: “Overall, we’ve won. It’s in the bag. We’re shooting for 10 gold medals. The decision on the Banks-Mesa bout (when American Kelcie Banks defeated Cuban Arnoldo Mesa in the quarterfinals) was a gift for the Americans.”

Solano had more to say. A Cuban assistant coach ran off. He motioned to another Cuban, possibly a delegation chief, who hustled over to listen in.

Solano was asked about reports a Cuban boxer had called the U.S. boxers “arrogant.”

“The American boxers walk in front of us in a very prideful way, behaving as if they were the best when they know we are the best,” he said. “We have better trainers, we are just better prepared. It is why we have more world champions.”

Collins, the U.S. bantamweight, got a 5-0 decision over a quick and determined DelValle, who some felt was slighted in the scoring. One reporter in the interview room suggested to Collins that maybe 3-2 would’ve been more like it.

“You saw that as a 3-2 fight?” Collins asked. “That’s why you’re not a judge.”

Collins, who is 2-1 vs. Cubans, wouldn’t discuss the strategy he’s planned for his Cuban opponent in the final, Manuel Martinez, saying only: “Are y’all ready for a showdown?”

Foster, from Great Falls, Mont., cruised into the final against Cuban Duvergel with a routine 5-0 win over Oliveria. Duvergel, who stopped outclassed Panamanian Daniel Gueto in the first round Thursday, was the silver medalist in the World Championships at 147 pounds 15 months ago at Reno, but has dropped down to the 139s for the Pan Ams.

In the 156s, the powerful Solano had little difficulty with Liles, the inexperienced American. Solano is a huge favorite for the gold against Puerto Rico’s Sanchez.

Solano is so strong he can control a clinch in such a way as to make it appear his opponent is the one holding.

“I fought his fight,” Liles admitted afterward. “He was very strong, and I should have stayed away from him and not been in so close. I felt I could take over, inside. All the other Cubans have died down late in their bouts with us, but this guy didn’t.”

Bent, the Cambria Heights, N.Y., heavyweight, never did find a route around the taller (6-4) Savon’s effective left jab. In a matchup of two standup heavyweights, Bent had a slow, cold first round, a fatal flaw common among U.S. boxers here who’ve lost to Cubans.

Late in the first and several times over the last two rounds, Bent never so much as flinched when he took Savon’s best punches to the head. On the rare occasions Bent could get inside the Cuban’s long jab, he scored with inside combinations.

Bent’s last shot at it was in the third, with 1:10 left, when he rocked Savon--the world champion--with a right-left combination. That turned the crowd on and brought out the “USA!” chants . . . until everyone saw that Savon, too, has a cast iron chin.

“The toughest thing I’m going to have to do is to get off the plane at LaGuardia in New York after this, and show people another bronze medal,” he said. “This is the third straight bronze I’ve won in international competition.

“I had trouble getting off first against him, the jab was a problem. I finally adjusted to his style, but too late. He out-boxed me.”

Bent expressed disappointment for an entire team.

“Two and seven isn’t a very good record (against the Cubans),” he said. “When we came here, our attitude was that we’re as good or better than they were. It’s disappointing.”