A first and small group of boxers from Cuba will debut as professionals in Mexico, starting next May, in an agreement that means the end of the ban that kept boxers from the Island restricted to amateur sports.
The measure, announced yesterday in the official television space Round tablepart of a development strategy that maintains as its main objective “to strengthen its leading role in Olympic and world events”, as well as “to add another source of income” that benefits athletes and members of technical groups, their families and the development of the sports, according to directors of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder).
#CubanBoxing announces presence in professional circuits. The step is part of a development strategy whose main objective is to strengthen its leading role in Olympic and world competitions. #boxing #CubanSporthttps://t.co/X1EdsfNc1u pic.twitter.com/saqZQqxHvb
— JIT Cuban Sport (@jit_digital) April 4, 2022
In this sense, the authorities informed that the income generated by each fight will be mainly destined to the athletes (80%), and that they will also benefit trainers (15%) and medical personnel (5%).
“Every time an athlete goes to a professional boxing poster, he is paid for the fight, even by assault,” said Alberto Puig de la Barca, president of the Cuban Boxing Federation (FCB), and clarified that this payment “It takes place the same day of the competition.”
As for the bonuses derived from the representation agreement signed with the Mexican company Golden Ring Promotions, the boxers would also receive 80% and the governing body of boxing in Cuba would receive 20% as payment for the training right. This amount would be fundamentally used for the development of the base, points out the note published in the sports portal Hit.
According to this source, initially four athletes, who will train on the Island, will sign for three years, with additional economic bonuses. According to Puig de la Barca, it is one of the two variants established in the contract.
According to the federation, they are the main exponents of boxing in the country. “Those boxers, along with the second, third figures and immediate perspective athletes from the academies, would also be inserted in the events that take place,” he added.
In statements by the highest boxing authority in Cuba, quoted by Eph“Three and a half years ago a serious analysis began that has resulted in the agreement approved and welcomed by the country’s sports management and the Cuban Boxing Federation with Golden Ring Promotions, for the representation of Cuba in its entry into the professional boxing.
“We plan that six of the main figures of the Domadores de Cuba take part in six-round fights in at least four events in this year 2022. The next month of May is planned for Cuba’s beginnings in professional boxing,” Puig added.
“It is a privilege to have reached this historic agreement with the Cuban sports authorities, which will mark a before and after in boxing,” Gerardo Saldívar, president of Golden Ring Promotions, was quoted by the Spanish agency as saying on Monday. Saldívar valued the confidence of the Domadores de Cuba team, a name under which this Cuban group will compete in the future, and predicted that soon the talents will be added to the rankings of the main professional boxing organizations.
Cuba won three gold medals in boxing in Munich 1972, with the bantamweight Orlando Martínez, the middleweight Emilio Correa and the heavyweight Teófilo Stevenson, and since then it has been the main power of amateur boxing, however, its fighters could not compete. as professionals, unless leaving the country and being hired on their own.
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The measure signifies a shift in Cuba’s sports policy, which for decades described professional boxing as inhumane and lacking in principles.
The country currently has a world professional boxing champion, welterweight Yordenis Ugás, who emigrated to the United States in 2010 and on August 21 won the World Boxing Association (WBA) belt by defeating Filipino Manny Pacquiao.
With information from Efe, Cubadebate and Jit.
