5. Hector Vinent – Cuban junior welterweight (1992-1996)

If ever a fighter conquered his athletic environment it was Vinent, who shined like few others during the first two Olympics conducted under computerized scoring rules. A tall southpaw who fought best while moving forward, the 20-year-old Vinent was considered one of the least accomplished members of the Cuban team heading into the 1992 games. But Vinent proved his worth in the ring as he posted ridiculously lopsided scores – 27-4 against Colombia’s Edwin Cassiani, 14-2 versus Germany’s Andreas Zuelow, 26-3 against the Unified Team’s Oleg Nikolayev and 13-3 against Finland’s Jyri Kjall before beating 30-year-old Canadian Marc Leduc (who beat future camp Leonard Dorin along the way) 11-1 in the final.

Consider: During a tournament when single-digit scores for both fighters were commonplace, Vinent’s average margin of victory was 15.6 points.

Vinent, who at 24 was just entering his physical prime, picked up where he left off when he stopped Korea’s Hyung Min Han in two rounds to kick off the 1996 games, the only knockout in his Olympic career. He then blew out Turkey’s Nurhan Suleymanoglu 23-1, defeated Russia’s Eduard Zakharov 15-7 and dominated Kazakhstan’s Bulat Niazymbetov 23-6 en route to the gold medal match against future pro titlist Oktay Urkal. Germany’s Urkal proved to be the most competitive of Vinent’s Olympic opponents, but he still lost 20-13. Vinent cooled off a bit in Atlanta as his average victory margin dipped to a mere 13.5 points.

Vinent, who equaled Kulej’s feat of two consecutive golds at junior welterweight, certainly had the youth and talent to shoot for a third gold in Sydney – and maybe an unprecedented fourth in Athens – but for reasons unknown to this writer he didn’t. Cuba hasn’t won gold in the division since – Diogenes Luna filled the gap in 2000 and won bronze while Yudel Jhonson captured silver in Athens and Roniel Iglesias earned bronze in Beijing. And Cuba – as well as no other country – ever will again since the weight class has been eliminated.