August 2, 1996
Canadian heavyweight David Defiagbon headed for gold
By TERRY JONES -- Edmonton Sun
ATLANTA - This wasn't a stage where acting was going to work.
"U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.'' the fans chanted.
Flash bulbs, in a `No Flash Photography Please' sport popped by the hundreds throughout the bout.
As a rule, you don't want to go against the American until the gold medal bout, especially at an Olympic Games being held on U.S. soil.
And I guess the golden rule would be that you wouldn't want to fight an American on U.S. soil in a fight right after another American, a hometown hero from Atlanta, got the bleep kicked out of him by a boxer from Cuba.
But David Defiagabon took on American ex-convict Nate Jones in the semifinal last night and gave the fans the kind of Olympic moment not often being shown on NBC TV.
And he proved a point. He's a first-rate fighter, not some phenomenal faker who got to the final four by putting on a show pretending he took a low blow.
Three Americans were beat on this card this night. Only one admitted it.
Whupped
"I got whupped,'' said Jones.
When he walked out of the ring, David Defiagbon of Halifax via Nigeria had won a chance to join Horace `Lefty' Gwynne (1932) and Lennox Lewis (1988) as Canada's only Olympic gold medal boxing champions.
Well . . .
Chance might be overstating it.
A betting man would say he won Canada's ninth silver medal here last night. Forget about getting Canada's third gold.
He won the right to meet five-time world champion and two-time Olympic champion Felix Savon of Cuba, the modern-day Teofilo Stevenson tomorrow in the final.
Savon won the other semifinal over Luan Krasniqi of Germany, a man who had the very good sense to not show up for the weigh-in giving Savon a walk-over to get to the gold medal bout where Joe Frazier, George Forman and Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) made their names and where Lewis beat Riddick Bowe eight years ago in Seoul, Korea.
The Halifax heavyweight was thrilled.
"This is like a dream come true,'' he said.
"I knew I could do it!''
Wayne Taylor jumped in to remind everybody of one thing.
"This was not a surprise. We've been saying this.''
But did anybody really believe it?
"A lot of people think I didn't deserve to be in this fight,'' said Defiagbon because of what happened 48 hours earlier.
There was no getting around it. We were going to have to ask him about his swollen penis.
When we left Defiagabon two days ago, he'd become, minimum, a bronze medal winner at these Olympics basically because his swollen member wasn't able to take a punch.
Ruled unable to continue because of a low blow from Christophe Mendy of France, Defiagbon was awarded the fight, the French suggesting it was "cinema'' and that the tape should be submitted for the Cannes Film Festival.
So there we were, following the fight, grown men and women, asking a guy about his penis.
"It's a little bit sore,'' he reported.
"The swelling has gone down.''
He said he was inspected by a doctor in the morning.
The subject then reverted to his original story line.
The Nigerian, six years ago at the Commonwealth Games in Auckland, N.Z. begged Canadian coach Taylor Gordon and then dropped to his knees to beg again four years ago in Barcelona.
This was his ultimate forum to tell his story.
Asked one question about his journey to become Canadian and he decided to offer the 10-minute version of the story ending with a $500 bribe and hiding in the washroom five minutes before flight time to make his great escape.
Proud Canadian
The fighter who moved to Halifax three years ago and didn't win his Canadian citizenship until mid-January said how proud he was to win this fight for Canada.
On back-to-back days Defiagbon and silver-medal-winning wrestler Gia Sissaouri were pretty good advertisements for an open immigration policy.
The 26-year-old security guard who left Nigeria because of religious oppression fought a very smart fight against the American who had served 20 months for auto theft and armed robbery.
Defiagbon took a low blow in the first minute of the fight which had replay written all over it. But the Canadian wasn't hurt and only seconds later rocked the American. Standing eight count. Three-nothing lead.
Defiagbon increased the margin to 7-2 and ended up with a 7-5 points edge at the end of the first round. It was 13-7 after two. And, despite the fact he was fading fast at the end, it ended up 16-8.
The fans booed the result. But Jones told the truth. Indeed he was whupped.
"The coaches told me not to take it easy with all the fans cheering `U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!''' he said.
Savon?
"I don't know,'' said Defiagbon. "He's a great fighter. He's had a long career. I give him a lot of credit.
"I'll go home now and my coaches will tell me what to do. I have great coaches. They'll tell me how to fight the fight.''
Sounds like he plans to show up.
