Cuba produced professional stars before it became an Olympic boxing power. That history makes any list of its greatest fighters difficult to rank. Kid Chocolate and Kid Gavilan built their names in long professional careers; Teófilo Stevenson and Félix Savón never fought professionally. The dividing line was a political decision in 1962 that changed what a Cuban boxer could do with his talent.
Chocolate was a major New York attraction in the 1930s, admired for his speed and two-handed punching. Gavilan later won the welterweight title and made the bolo punch his signature. Luis Rodriguez added another championship to Cuba’s professional
