All eyes on Cuba after turmoil
VIENNA: All eyes will be on Cuba during the Olympic boxing tournament in
Beijing in August to see how the island nation has recovered from a
spate of defections.
Boxing is a national sport in Cuba and the Caribbean have won 32 of
their 65 Olympic gold medals in the sport.
But Cuban boxing has been plundered of five of its best talents over the
last couple of years as fighters escaped their country to seek riches in
the lucrative professional ranks -- something denied them by the strict
communist regime in their country.
Former dictator Fidel Castro banned fighters from turning professional,
believing they should serve their country by winning medals that glorify
the nation rather than chasing their own fortune in the pro ranks.
Castro's favourite sportsman of all time was the three-time Olympic
heavyweight champion Felix Savon, who retired after winning Games gold
in Sydney in 2000.
Cuba had a ready made replacement in Odlanier Solis, who had in fact a
2-1 winning record over Savon in domestic competition and he went on to
claim the heavyweight title in Athens in 2004.
He also won three world titles: two at heavyweight in 2001 and 2003 and
the last at super-heavyweight in 2005.
But in December 2006 while training in Venezuela ahead of the 2007
Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro (he had won heavyweight gold at the
previous two editions in 1999 and 2003) Solis and fellow reigning
Olympic gold medallists Yan Bartelemy (light-flyweight) and Yuriorkis
Gamboa (flyweight) all went missing.
They turned up later in Miami and signed professional contracts with
Germany-based Arena Box Promotions.
If that wasn't bad enough, six months later double Olympic and twice
world champion bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux and 2005 world champion
welterweight Erislandy Lara both went on the run after the Pan-American
Games.
They were both picked up by Brazilian police and deported back to Cuba
but subsequently kicked off the boxing team.
Lara managed to flee again in a speed boat to Mexico and strangely
enough turned up in Hamburg, Germany to sign with Arena.
But the spate of defections, and the loss of their five best boxers, saw
Castro withdraw the team from the 2007 World Championships in Chicago,
probably fearing even more defections -- a wise move perhaps given that
a year later Cuba lost their women's light-heavyweight world judo
champion Yurisel Laborde during the Pan-American Championships in Miami.
It all means that Cuba are without all five of their gold medallists
from Athens -- the fifth, lightweight Mario Kindelan has retired -- and
have not competed at the World Championships since 2005.
Their best hope should thus be Kindelan's successor, the 21-year-old
Yordenis Ugas, who claimed gold at the 2005 worlds.
In Beijing, attention will probably be mostly focused on the heavyweight
and super-heavyweight divisions, as those have produced many future
professional world champions in recent years.
Cuba's strongest challenges will come from Russia and the United States,
although Italy and even Britain could spring a few surprises.
Italy have the current heavyweight and super-heavyweight world champions
in Clemente Russo and Roberto Cammarelle respectively.
Cammarelle has only ever lost to Russians in major international
competitions, chief among them Alexander Povetkin -- soon to challenge
Wladimir Klitschko for the International Boxing Federation heavyweight
title.
The super-heavyweight favourite, though, is Russian European champion
Islam Timurziev who beat Cammarelle on the way to winning that crown in
2006 but pulled out of the pair's World Championships semi-final a year
later with injury.
At heavyweight US giant 6-foot 7-inch and relatively inexperienced
Deontay Wilder could provide a surprise as he holds a victory over
Russian favourite Rakhim Chakhkeiv -- who surprisingly lost a close
final to Russo in Chicago.
Another name to look out for in the lightweight division is British
world champion Frankie Gavin while hosts China will be hoping their
light-flyweight world champion Zou Shiming can repeat his victorious
feat on home soil. -- AFP
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/Sport/2290685/Article/index_html
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