‘Super Mario’ and the great Khan

HAVANA, Cuba.- The second of the three times they collided was in the final of the 2004 Athens Olympics. By then the Englishman was a 17-year-old boy and the Cuban, a 33-year-old fighter with winning experience in many competitions. called by the AIBA.

Two decades ago and I remember it as if it were now. Amir Khan, the British, had not yet incorporated the circus routines that would later put him in the eye of all the cyclones, but he was already sinking his fangs into talent with impressive audacity. In the other corner was Mario Kindelán, from Holguin, champion in three world championships and also in the previous summer event.

The combat responded to expectations. That is, bull and bullfighter. Khan chased the Creole through every bit of the shed, looked for exchanges, threw blows at random, but (not without dignity) was defeated by superior fencing. As had happened three months earlier in the pre-Olympic tournament, Kindelán – that extra force – carried the victory over the Englishman.

Said like that, it sounds beautiful. The lightweight from Cuba, one of the most colorful boxers among the hundreds who have passed through the national squad, managed to become the titleholder of the quadrennial fights in spite of an emerging power that would later become professional world monarch.

Technician to die, more prone to the ‘bite and run’ fight than to the loud contest, the insular left-hander made an epoch in amateurism to the point of being victorious in 358 of 380 fights. As thick as dictionaries, his service record includes successes at the expense of the (later) legendary Puerto Ricans ‘Tito’ Trinidad and Miguel Cotto, the Ukrainian star Andreas Kotelnik, the Thai Somluck Kansing and his compatriots Yudel Johnson and Rudinelson Hardy.

He became the best pound for pound in the amateur world, he was nicknamed ‘Super Mario’ and between 1999 and 2004 no one could defeat him. But that invincibility was never enough of a reason for him to decide to try his luck on other wheels. Those where the blows—so terrible, so strong, so damaging—at least receive compensation with an appreciable monetary reward.

The splendor gone, his career closed in 2005 against Khan himself, who in a third exchange of arms ambushed him before the enthusiasm of the people of his native Bolton. Chivalrous, Kindelán raised his rival’s arm and it was his final goodbye to the blackboard.

Time passed. One gray day at the end of last year, the agencies realized that the lightweight champion had joined the list of Cuban stars (Osleidys Menéndez, Roniel Iglesias, Leuris Pupo, Iván Pedroso…) who were putting up for sale the medals won under the five rings However, his story was going to have a happy ending.

It turns out that, determined to build a house for his mother, Kindelán took advantage of the occasion of an event in Bahrain to value the gold from the Athenian Olympics at $5,000. And who did you make the offer to? Well, Khan.

The irony was dark: the British had the possibility of revenge in his hands. The executioner who had broken his dream prostrated himself before him, desperate, and asked him for a trifle in exchange for that symbol of glory.

But not. In a display of sense of justice, Khan made a counterproposal to Kindelán. His story on the Fight Night podcast says it all.

“He asked me, ‘Do you want to buy my gold medal?’ At first I thought she was joking, but she said, ‘I really want to sell you my medal to build my mother a house.’ I replied: ‘No problem, I will give you the 5,000, but you must promise me that you will keep the medal and not sell it to anyone.’”

The master conference of bonhomie concluded with a lapidary phrase. “I would never accept that medal from you because you earned it.”

OPINION ARTICLE
The opinions expressed in this article are the exclusive responsibility of the person issuing them and do not necessarily represent the opinion of CubaNet.