To be a champion in your sport is cause for celebration.

To maintain your mastery over 10 years, or more; to know for better than a decade that every single person who takes to your sport has as his ultimate ambition a win over you and yet, to remain unmoved, secure in your absolute mastery -- that is rare.

'Rare' describes Felix Savon perfectly. In fact, the Cuban heavyweight has probably only one equal, in boxing history -- the legendary Teofilo Stevenson, whose record of winning the gold in three successive Olympics Savon should equal here in Sydney.

The 33-year-old resident of San Vincente, 6'5" in his socks, is one of the most elegant boxers to have ever stepped into a ring -- another rarity, given that power, not elegance, is the chief characteristic of the heavyweights.

As a youth, Savon was attracted to track and field, but his coach at the Cuban sports school exhorted him to try boxing. His mother objected to her teenage son participating in 'violent' sports, and told him that if he took up boxing, he could never return home.

Felix spent that night lying on the grass, in an adjoining field, staring up at the stars as though seeking to read his future there. As he recalled it later, "I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I was a boxer."

His mother bowed to the inevitable and took her son back into the family fold. Two years later, Savon made his debut in the middleweight class in a national tournament, knocked out his first three opponents, and then defeated the reigning champion to take the title.

At age 17, he was the heavyweight junior champion of the world. Today, he is a two-time Olympic gold medallist -- Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996. He should have had more, but then Cuba boycotted Seoul in 1988, and before that, Los Angeles in 1984.

The real story of his mastery is told in this -- Felix Savon won his first world championship in 1986, repeated in 1991, then won again in 1993, 1995 and 1997 -- remembering that the Worlds come around once every two years.

In 1999, Savon was placed second -- and not because he lost. Furious over what they called "unjust" decisions in the preliminary round, the Cuban delegation decided that a welterweight bout Juan Hernandez and Russia's Timour Gaidalov was about all the bad refereeing they could take, and withdrew. Savon, thus, did not take the ring for his final against the American, Michael Bennett.

Bennett won in a walkover. And in the manner of heavyweights everywhere, shot from the lip. "I was kind of hoping that he would come back out and do battle," Bennett said then. "You want a chance to knock off the king of the hill and when it comes, you don't want to miss it."

A second chance came his way. On September 26, in the Sydney boxing ring. And Bennett prepared for the showdown as well as he knew how -- adding to his chances by roping in Evander Holyfield to coach, and assist, him.

Primed for the big one, watched by Holyfield, Bennett stepped into the ring. And received a lesson from the master. Delivered with the Cuban's usual air of calm mastery.

The referee had to step in, and stop the fight in the third round, with Savon -- not even boxing flat out -- leading 23-8.

Bennett had just enough wind left, after the bout, to say: "Felix Savon is boxing history. There is very little you can do against him."

Champions are like that -- where they walk the earth, humility follows in their wake.

Haile the champion!