06/11/2021 10:12 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 06/11/2021 10:36
As if it were North and South Korea, for decades professional boxing and amateur boxing were
two sharply separated territories whose inhabitants never crossed
. The border could only be crossed once (and one way). In recent years, as between the two nations divided by the 38th parallel, there have been gestures of rapprochement. One of them will be seen this Friday in Mexico, where the Cuban team will measure forces with a group of professional fighters from that country, which will be joined by a Venezuelan and an American.
Eight six-round bouts and under the rules of rented boxing
will shape the evening that will take place at the Palenque de la Feria de San Marcos, in Aguascalientes, which will have the presence of 2,000 spectators (50 percent of the capacity of the enclosure) and that can be seen through the ESPN 3 screen from 10:30 p.m.
Although the proposal is highly novel, it will not represent the first contact with the paid sport of the Cuban team, which is preparing for the Tokyo Olympics.
Since 2013, the selected one, presented as a franchise under the name of
Domadores de Cuba
, participated in the World Series of Boxing, a contest organized by the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA).
The members of the Cuban boxing team pose after a training session in Aguascalientes.
That contest, in which the Caribbean were champions three times and runners-up twice in their five interventions, represented a particular cross between these two once-divorced universes: it allowed the participation of amateurs and professionals in five-round three-minute fights, without a header. no mesh.
This time,
the Central Americans will go one step further
. In any case, the members of the selected team made it clear that this experience does not imply renouncing the values of amateur sport that the island has held for six decades and reaffirmed their willingness to continue representing their country, despite the offers that some received to defect. . Even in the last hours they recorded a video in which four of them repeat the phrase "the best is inside."
“With this motto we respond to all those boxers who have left the country and to the team to go fight as professionals. They fill their mouths saying that they are the best and our team responds to them that the true champions are us, those who are inside Cuba, ”explained the captain of the team, the experienced
Julio César La Cruz
, in statements reproduced by the Cuban Agency News.
La Cruz, Olympic champion in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and quadruple amateur world champion, will be one of the stellar protagonists of Friday night.
The 31-year-old boxer born in Camagüey, who spent his entire career in the medium heavyweight division (up to 81 kilos), will climb to the heavy category (up to 91 kilos) and will face the Tijuana-based
Julián Fernández
, who has a professional record of 14 victories and 3 defeats (all outside their country).
Julio César La Cruz, captain of the Cuban boxing team.
But the duel that will steal the evening in Aguscalientes will feature
Andy Cruz
, champion in the Hamburg 2017 and Yekaterinburg 2019 World Cups and
the best hope of Cuban boxing to get a gold medal in Tokyo
. The 25-year-old fighter from Matanzas will face
Miguel
Títere
Vázquez
, the International Boxing Federation lightweight world champion between 2010 and 2014 and rival of a very young Saúl Canelo Álvarez in 2008.
They will also present the welterweight
Roniel Iglesias
(Olympic champion in London 2012 and bronze medalist in Beijing 2008), the middleweight
Arlen López
(gold in Rio 2016 and world champion in Doha 2015), the fly
Yosbany Veitía
(champion in Hamburg 2017) , the featherweight
Lázaro Álvarez
(bronze in London 2012 and world champion in Baku 2011), the super heavyweight
Dainier Peró
(Pan American champion in Lima 2019) and the middleweight
Yoenlis Hernández
.
Roniel Iglesias will participate in Tokyo in his fourth Olympic Games.
All of them, except Hernández, are guaranteed their presence in the Games after a qualifying process conditioned by the coronavirus pandemic, especially after the cancellation of the Pre-Olympic of the Americas that was going to take place in Buenos Aires between 10 and 16 May and that it was going to grant 49 places for Tokyo (33 for men and 16 for women).
Finally, the Olympic Boxing Task Force (the entity in charge of organizing the contest in the Japanese capital and the qualifiers before the suspension that the International Olympic Committee applied to AIBA for administrative, economic and arbitration irregularities) granted those 49 places in base on world amateur ranking.
Another 13, to be decided at the World Qualifier (also canceled), were assigned by invitation.
In this way,
Cuban boxing was done with seven tickets.
For now, it is the second discipline that will bring the most representatives to the Caribbean delegation, which so far has 56 classified athletes.
Only athletics (18) is guaranteed a greater presence.
Arlen López will try to repeat in Tokyo the Olympic title he won in Rio de Janeiro 2016.
Since the legendary Alcides Sagarra took over as coach of the Cuban national team in 1964 (he held that position until 2001),
boxing was the flagship sport of the island's Olympism
.
Cuba occupies the 16th place in the historical medal table of the Games, with 226 medals (78 gold) in its 20 participations.
Of those, 73 were contributed by the sport of gloves (37 gold).
Among the great champions of Cuban boxing, the three-time Olympic champions
Teófilo Stevenson
(Munich 1972, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980) and
Félix Savón
(Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000) stand out, two of the three men who achieved three golds throughout of history. The other was the Hungarian
László Papp
in London 1948, Helsinki 1952 and Melbourne 1956.