Cuban Boxer Poses Major Challenge for Van Nuys’ Bray

John Bray of Van Nuys, the national amateur heavyweight boxing champion, will get the test of his career Saturday when he fights two-time world champion Felix Savon of Cuba in a bout at Ft. Bragg, N. C.

The fight will be televised by NBC.

In addition to posting lopsided victories in each of the past two World Championships, Savon won the Pan American Games title in 1987, the gold medal in the 1990 Goodwill Games and earlier this year won the World Cup Challenge in Bangkok, Thailand.

Bray, 20, who trains at the Ten Goose Boxing Club in Van Nuys when not in training at the U. S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., won the U. S. championship earlier this year when he posted an easy decision over Javier Alvarez of San Antonio. He lost in the quarterfinals of the 1990 Goodwill Games.

Also fighting will be Oscar de la Hoya of Los Angeles, the two-time national amateur champion at 132 pounds and the 1990 Goodwill Games champion. He will meet Cuba’s Julio Gonzales, the 1989 world champion and winner of the 1991 World Cup Challenge.