Cubans are fighters. Perhaps that’s the reason we love boxing so much. Names like “Kid Gavilan” Gonzalez, Benny Paret, and Eligio “Kid Chocolate” are known to most people in or from the Island. Boxers, for us, are heroes, just like the ones who fought for our independence. Ask anyone about Felix Savon or Teofilo Stevenson–our Cassius Clay. World Cups, Olympics, Championships, those are the battlefields.