The cuban boxers they will be able to collect pending payments from the last two World Championships, the Island Federation assured this Tuesday.
“Regarding the outstanding debts from the previous World Cup and the payments from this World Cup, the mechanism is already in place to be able to receive them,” Alberto Puig de la Barca, president of Cuba’s highest boxing entity, said at a press conference.
“This problem is already on a path to a practical solution, which will guarantee that the money reaches the athletes,” said the manager in response to a question from OnCuba about the topic.
According to Puig de la Barca, since the end of the recent Tashkent World ChampionshipUzbekistan, the International Boxing Association (IBA) “was looking for solutions to make the payment viable, and we also for our part, so that the money can reach Cuba.”
“As is known, it is very difficult for this money to transit through a bank that does not have a control system from other countries, specifically from the United States (due to the embargo/blockade regulations), and that is why it is difficult for it to reach Cuba. ”, he explained.
However, “solutions were sought and we have practically solved this problem,” he said, although without detailing the mechanism used for it.
At the World Cup in Tashkent, the champions received a prize of $200,000, the runners-up $100,000, and the bronze medalists $50,000.
In that event, the island achieved a title, through Yoenlis Hernández —who later left the team on the way back to Cuba—, as well as three subtitles and two bronze medals. In addition, according to various sources, six other boxers who fell in the quarterfinals also deserved a cash prize.
And in the previous World Cup, held in Belgrade, Serbia and which also recognized the medalists with sums of money, Cuba added three scepters and two bronze medals. Those cash prizes, almost two years after the event, had not yet reached the hands of the Cuban boxers who stood on the podium.
Regarding the way in which the money is distributed, the manager specified that “in the case of Cuban boxing, 80% of the prize is received directly by the athlete, 15% goes to the coach, and 5% to the medical triad.” In other words, 20% corresponds to “the people who managed to get that athlete to be in the ring,” he confirmed to OnCuba.
As for the fighters who are not part of the Antillean squad for having left the country —like four of the five Belgrade medalists, including Hernández and the also star Andy Cruz—, Puig de la Barca did not specify what would happen with the money earned for them.
In professional boxing
In the case of the collection of professional boxing matches involving athletes represented by his entity, the president of the Cuban Federation explained that “when the amount is not very high” that money is fully collected by the athlete after the match and distributed what was agreed to by the coach and the medical triad.
In the event that the prize stipulated in the contract is a figure greater than what is allowed to move personally on the return trip to the island, then the athlete receives that money in parts, “so as not to violate the provisions on the amount of money allowed to pass through airports”.
In his comments to the press, Puig de la Barca highlighted the importance of Cuban boxers being able to receive the pending payments and cash prizes in general that they win in the ring. This, he said, is a “way of stimulation” for his performance.
In addition, together with the head of the coaching group, Rolando Acebal, he confirmed that the island’s boxers under his representation will continue to participate in the coming months in rented circuits and in paid events such as the champion galas organized by the IBA.
However, he also recognized how complex it is to find rivals for Cubans in the professional circuits in which they are inserted, and assured that not infrequently the opponents decline even with the fight already agreed.
In the same way, he outlined the possibility that experienced figures within the Cuban squad, who due to their seniority are no longer in a position to respond in the best way to the demands of the IBA tournaments, can continue fighting professionally, for be a modality “in which you fight less”.
Finally, Puig de la Barca confirmed the good relations of the Island Federation with the International Association and responded to OnCuba that his entity remains “attentive” to the possibility that a new entity, formed by federations detached from the IBA, will take over Olympic boxing.
