Cuban boxers will be able to participate in professional competitions for the first time since 1962, announced this Monday (4) the president of the Cuban Boxing Federation, Alberto Puig.
“For three and a half years we have been working on a contract that really corresponds to the philosophy of Cuban sport, in the case of the insertion of our boxers in professional boxing,” Puig told state television.
The Federation signed a “representation contract” with the Mexican company Golden Ring to hold the first fights in Mexico in May.
“In a first stage, a team of five or six boxers will fight in Europe against Europeans or Latin Americans, who will return to the Cuban boxing school,” Puig said, adding that four boxers have already signed four-year contracts.
“It is a privilege to have reached this historic agreement with the Cuban sports authorities, which marks a before and after in boxing,” said Gerardo Saldivar, president of Golden Ring Promotions, in a statement.
After Fidel Castro’s revolution, Cuba abolished professional sports in 1962 before making a timid comeback in baseball, volleyball and basketball in 2013.
Boxing managed to debut in 2014 in semi-professional level competitions through the local team “Dompteurs de Cuba” that participates in the World Boxing Series (WSB), in which it won three of the five editions in which it participated, the last in 2018.
In the ring, the Caribbean island has long been unbeatable in the amateur category, with 80 world titles and 41 Olympic titles, even as, over the years, it has suffered countless defections from boxers who left in search of a better future.
“Now, participating in the professional leagues will increase our competitive level, as we are going to face high-level boxers like us, and this will allow us to remain in the elite of boxing”, said Cuban boxer Julio César La Cruz, two-time Olympic champion and five times world champion.
The announcement comes at a time when the future of the sport appears to be at stake at the Olympics. International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach had announced in December that boxing could be excluded from the 2028 edition of the Games in Los Angeles after several scandals.
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