▪️Cuban legend Teofilo Stevenson’s 11-year unbeaten run was finally shattered by Italy’s Francesco Damiani at the 1982 IBA World Boxing Championships in Munich
▪️Eight African boxers – two each from Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia and DRC – powered their way to quarters but only Nigeria’s Roland Omoruyi won a medal
▪️Cuba thwarts strong challenge from the US to win the overall world crown for the third year running
19/11/2025
Cuban legend Teofilo Stevenson won the heavyweight gold twice in the inaugural 1974 World Championships in Havana, Cuba, and at the 1978 World Championships in Belgrade.
Teofilo’s determined efforts to win his third world title in a row went up in flames when against all expectations he suffered a shocking 5-0 points defeat to Italy’s European champion Francesco Damiani in the super-heavyweight quarter-finals.
Damiani neutralised Teofilo’s powerful right punch and jabs by fighting him at close quarters shaking the Cuban several times. Teofilo was not his normal self, showing limited appetite for the fight. Damiani settled for silver, losing in the finals to Tyrell Biggs of the USA who became the first world super-heavyweight champion.
Teofilo made up for the Munich disappointment in the 1986 World Championships in Reno, USA where he won the super-heavyweight gold with a points victory over home boy Alex Garcia.
Despite the unexpected defeat of Teofilo in Munich, Cuba shook off strong opposition from the US to emerge overall winners for the third year running with five gold, one silver and bronze apiece ahead of USA 3-2-2 and Soviet Union 3-2-1.
For the first time in the World Boxing Championships, Africa had eight quarter-finalists.
Expectations rose high among boxing followers in Africa hoping for a better performance than in 1978 when Kenya’s celebrated light-flyweight Steve Muchoki and Nigeria’s lightweight Davidson Andeh won two precious gold medals for Africa in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (Belgrade is now the capital of Serbia).
The eight African boxers in the quarter-finals were light-flyweight Ibrahim “Surf” Bilali, lightweight Hussein “Juba” Khalili (Kenya), bantamweight Joe Orewa, welterweight Roland Omoruyi (Nigeria), light-middleweight Kalongo Bolemi, middleweight Mwehu Beya (DR Congo), Lofti Belkhir and welterweight Khemai Refai both from Tunisia.
Competition at the 1982 World Championships was so stiff, featuring some of the top Cuban, Soviet Union, American, South Korea and German boxers.
Cuba had among others three-time world featherweight champion Adolfo Horta, welterweight Angel Herrera and two-time world light-heavyweight gold medallist Pablo Romero, a tall swarmer boxer who preferred engaging his opponents in close-quarter exchanges.
Among the star boxers in the US team included lightweight Pernell Whitaker and welterweight Mark Breland, both eliminating African boxers in the quarter-finals.
The going was not easy for the African boxers with only Nigeria’s Roland Omuruyi sailing to the semi-finals with a 3-2 points win over Tunisia’s Khemais Rufai.
Bilali lost 4-1 to Korea’s Yong-Mo Heo, Orewa went down 3-2 to Venezuela’s Jesus Poll, Khalili lost 5-0 to Pernell Whitaker, Cuba’s Angel Herrera stopped Tunisia’s Lofti Belkhir in the first round, Soviet Union’s Alexandr Koshkin beat DR Congo’s Kalongo Bolemi 5-0 and DR Congo’s middleweight Mwehu Beya lost 5-0 to Pedro Raamsdank from the Netherlands.
Already assured of a medal, Omoruyi was beaten in the semi-finals by Soviet Union’s 1980 Olympic Games silver medallist Serik Konakbayev who went on to lose to USA’s Mark Breland in the finals.
The eight losing finalists were among the 21 boxers from Africa who made it to the round of 16 with 13 of them losing their bouts.
Nigeria’s featherweight Peter Konyegwachie, now based in London, and Kenya’s Kamau Wanyoike were among Africa’s hot medal prospects unable to qualify for the quarter-finals.
Konyegwachie was eliminated in the round of 32 by Cuba’s Adolfo Horta while Wanyoike, the three-time King’s Cup champion, went down 3-2 to West Germany’s Polish-born Manfred Zielonka in the pre-quarters.
Wanyoike, now a farmer at his rural home in Komothai, Kiambu County, is still not convinced he lost to Zielonka.
“My opponent was fighting at home, they had to give it to him otherwise I beat him in all the three rounds,” Wanyoike told boxersworld.co.ke in a telephone phone interview as he harvested coffee.
Round of 16 results for the losing eight African quarter-finalists.
Light-flyweight Ibrahim Bilali (Kenya) beat Juan Molina (Puerto Rico) 5-0, flyweight Joe Orewa (Nigeria) beat Bogdan Maczuya (Poland) 5-0, lightweight Hussein Khalili (Kenya) defeated Tibor Puha (Czechoslovakia) 4-1, Lofti Belkhir (Tunisia) outpointed Tuncay Sipahi (Turkey), welterweight Khemais Refai (Tunisia) beat Bulgaria’s Ramis Yasharov, Nigeria’s Roland Omoruyi beat Norway’s Kristen Reagan on a walkover, light-middleweight Kalongo Bolemi (DRC) stopped Venezuela’s Daniel Urdanetta in the third round and middleweight DRC’s Mwehu Beya stopped Canada’s Kevin McDermott in the second round.
