The boxer Yoenlis Hernandez, only Cuban champion At the recent World Championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, he left the island’s delegation in Panama, where the team was making a stopover before returning to Antilles.
The news was revealed by several sources on social networks and later confirmed by the Cuban Boxing Federation through a statement released by the JIT digital site.
“The athlete Yoenlis Hernández Feliciano left the delegation attending the world championship concluded in Tashkent in recent days. During the return to the homeland, on a stopover in Panama, the double world champion declined to continue his trip to Havana,” said the entity’s note, which classified the act as “serious indiscipline.”
Report on serious indiscipline of boxer
The double world champion Yoenlis Hernández left the delegation during the return of the world fight held in Tashkent. #Cuba #boxing #boxing https://t.co/WZx1TEYu9C pic.twitter.com/qrd3oS3fDe— JIT Cuban Sport (@jit_digital) May 16, 2023
The decision of Yoenlis, one of the most promising fighters remaining in Cuba, implies “his break with the national team and with the competitive commitments made for this and future seasons,” said the Federation, which was confident that others “will know occupy” its place “in the Flagship of Cuban Sports”.
Remember that Hernández was the only Cuban champion in the most recent edition of the World Championship, in which the island lost the reign by nations by finishing in fourth position in the medal table with one title, three silvers and two bronzes.
The 25-year-old fighter, who had already been crowned at the Belgrade World Cup last year, won his second world title categorically in the 75-kilogram division, with successive victories against Mohammad Al-Mharat (Jordan), Jargalyn Otgonjargal (Mongolia), Rami Kiwan (Bulgaria), Moreno Fendero (France) and Wanderley Pereira (Brazil).
For this performance Yoenlis won the figure of 200 thousand dollars, a prize that is not clear if he will be able to collect in the future. In fact, it is not even known if the boxer from Camagüey received the 100 thousand dollars that corresponded to him for his victory in the last World Cup in Belgrade.
What is clear is that his loss opens a tremendous gap in the national team for the most important commitments of the year: the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador and the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile.
Boxing has been a discipline hard hit by the abandonment of delegations or departures from the country in recent months. Since the beginning of 2022, for example, it is known that Albert González, Carlos Castillo, Kevin Brown, Herich Ruiz, Billy Rodríguez, Osvel Caballero, Dainier Peró and Andy Cruz, all members of the national team, broke their ties with the Cuban sports movement.
