The Champ beat Joe Frazier. He beat George Foreman. He beat Ken Norton, Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson. But he never beat the one man that many of us believe might have been his equal in the ring. Politics kept them from ever facing each other.

That man was Cuban heavyweight legend Teófilo Stevenson, one of only three men to ever win three Olympic boxing gold medals. He dominated amateur boxing like few before or since, but the nature of international athletic politics during his heydey meant that he never turned pro, never stared across the ring at Muhammad Ali in what would surely have been a fight for the ages.

Teófilo Stevenson is dead at the age of 60. We can’t help wondering what might have been…