Cancer claims Olympic boxer

In the eight years that U.S. Olympic gold medalist Howard Davis Jr. and his wife, Karla Guadamuz-Davis were together, they formed an inseparable bond.

On Wednesday night, nearly one year after being diagnosed with Stage-4 cancer, Davis died in his wife’s arms in their Plantation home. He was 59.

“Because Howard was very sick, he knew the inevitable was going to come,” Guadamuz-Davis said in a telephone interview Friday. “I saw what was happening and I got a chance to hold him, and I wanted to tell him that I loved him and how much he has meant to all of us.

“I thanked him for our little gift of our 5-year-old, Samiha, and I got a chance to whisper in his ear,” she continued as she choked back tears. “I know a lot of people don’t get that chance, so I should feel blessed. I am glad we had that moment.”

Davis, a Broward County Sports Hall of Famer, suffered one of his most devastating setbacks on the eve of his greatest triumph, when his mother Catherine, 37, died of a heart attack in 1976, just days before the 20-year-old lightweight won gold at the Montreal