Antonio Tarver banged his way to a gold medal and helped the United States regain some respect at the World Amateur Boxing Championships on Sunday.
Tarver, a southpaw, delighted the crowd with the Ali Shuffle as he outpointed Cuba's Diosvani Vega 7-3 for the light heavyweight title."Defense was the key. How can I get beat when I don't get hit?," said the two-time U.S. champion. "I worked so hard. Anything less than a gold and I would have been dissatisfied."
It was only the second medal for the U.S. team, whose only worse showing was in 1978. Lawrence Clay-Bey won a bronze in super heavyweight.
"We were subpar," said U.S. assistant coach Tom Coulter. "We brought over a lot of new kids, but that's no excuse."
Cuba settled for four golds, far short of the record eight they claimed at the 1993 world championships. They also won two silvers and three bronzes.
Heavyweight Felix Savon won his record fifth title Saturday as the Cubans went undefeated, but they could only win one of three finals Sunday.
Romania's Francisc Vastag survived a late knockdown and boos from the crowd to win his second world title with a 12-4 verdict over Cuba's Alfredo Duvergel.
Cuba's Hector Vinent, the Olympic champion, defended his light welterweight crown by by pounding out a 7-4 decision over Turkey's Nurhan Sueleyanoglu, whom he sent flying to the canvas midway through the third round.
But Cuban fighters couldn't stop talk that the rest of the world is catching up to their once-dominant fighters.
"I think that's happened, I think it's going to be even harder for them in Atlanta," Coulter said of the 1996 Olympics.
Algeria, Turkey and France were among the emerging boxing nations that won silver medals at the event.
"For me this was the hardest world championships," said Cuban assistant coach Julian Gonzalez. "It used to be just us, Russia, America and the Germans. Now it is many countries."
Host Germany won a gold Sunday when Romanian-born Zoltan Lunka pounded out a 11-6 decision in the lightweight division over Kazakhstan's Bolat Yumadilov, the Asian Games champion.