MÉRIDA, Mexico – In a fight eagerly awaited by Cuban fans as it involved two Cubans born on the island, Cuban-Azeri Loren Berto Alfonso defeated Cuban-Spanish Emmanuel Reyes Pla and reached the Olympic boxing final in the 92 kilos category in Paris 2024.
The judges saw Berto Alfonso win in a 4-1 decision that was questioned by Reyes and his team.
“He has done nothing to win, he has lowered his hands, he has not thrown punches, it seems that he has been declared the winner as a punishment,” said the Spanish coach about the rival of the Cuban-Spanish Rafa Lozano.
“I don’t want to say whether they steal or not, what I think is that they are tired and do not have the correct vision of who is hitting clearly,” the coach added ironically.
In total, three Cubans competed in this division and eliminated each other, one will be in the final, one takes the bronze and the one competing for Cuba fell in his first appearance.
Berto Alfonso-La Cruz fight
Berto Alfonso had eliminated in his first appearance to the two-time Cuban Olympic champion Julio César La Cruz.
The standard-bearer La Cruz lost in a close fight (2-3) and upset the predictions of gold that the Cuban sports authorities had predicted.
“It was a tough fight, it was something we knew in advance. Loren Berto was a European and world champion, an Olympic medalist; he was a student of ours, they come from the same school and they know each other. The second round was the decisive one, in a very even fight,” said Rolando Acebal, head coach of the Cuban boxing team.
“Fights are decided by details, there is a high level here and whoever manages to overcome those details wins the fight. We must recognize that it was a very tactical fight and we must recognize that Loren is a tremendous boxer,” he added.
“I knew I was fighting the best in the world and in the end the result went in my favor,” Alfonso said after the fight.
“It was a good fight. In the ring I didn’t think about whether I was winning or losing, I was just doing my job,” he added.
Alfonso replicated La Cruz’s riposte style and ended up destabilizing the one competing for Cuba.
This Cuban-Azeri had already won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics and before Paris he had won the world and European titles.
Cuban boxing this Sunday
Cuban boxer Erislandy Álvarez beat up Georgian Lasha Guruli to secure silver and a place in the 63kg Olympic final.
The Guantanamo native dominated his rival all along the line and that is how the judges saw it, who saw him win by a unanimous vote of 5-0.
The young Cuban will face a difficult obstacle in the final, which will see him face local Sofiane Oumiha, three-time world champion and Olympic runner-up in Rio 2016.
In the next fight on Sunday’s card, the other Cuban in the competition, Arlén López, lost in a close fight against Ukrainian Oleksandr Khyzhniak and will not be able to seek his third Olympic gold in Paris.
López won bronze and thus opened the medal table for the Islanders.
After winning the first round, the two-time Olympic champion fell 2-3 in the second and 0-5 in the third.
