Cuban hopes of having at least a finalist in the World Boxing Championship in Liverpool vanished this Saturday, after Erislandy Álvarez (65 kilograms) and Alejandro Claro (50) were left out of the discussions of the crown in their respective divisions.
There was no balsamic closure for the island’s army in English lands, where each of the eight exponents of the delegation fell little by little until there were only three bronze medalists. From the qualitative point of view, this is the worst historical performance of Cuba, which had never been left without a finalist in a global fight.
The last to say goodbye was, precisely, the man who had more options to climb to the top. We talked about the Olympic champion Erislandy Álvarez, the best of all the boxers who still remain in Cuba, who could not overcome the young Brazilian Yuri Falcao in the semifinals.
Boxing World Cup: Cuba loses more than half of her team in Liverpool
The fiery fighter Cienfueguero lost in an unobjectable way (4-1), with a surprising dominance of the South American from Campana to Campana. “He has been a good rival, of the most difficult I have had. I wish him luck and I hope that gold medal will take,” He pointed out Erislandy after the duel at the M&S Bank Arena.
“This defeat for me means a lot. I have to look at all the mistakes I have made and work on them,” added the Cuban, who had advanced without major setbacks in the event and pointed to his first world crown.
Minutes before the defeat of Erislandy, the spirit Alejandro Claro also ceded against Sanzhar Tashkenbay, monarch defender of the minor division. The Antillean came out impetuous and took a tight victory in the first assault, but immediately came the reaction of the Kazakh. Despite falling demolished in the second round, the Euroasian moved the threads of combat and ended up convincing the judges, who gave him the 4-1 victory.
In this way, Cuban participation closes in the World Cup in Liverpool, where only three bronze medals have been reached. From the quantitative point of view, this is the least amount of medals conquered by the island in an appointment of the orb, matched with the Baku 2011 editions (two golds and one silver) and Yekaterinburg 2019 (a metal of each color).
End of history in heavyweights
Cuba was shot the possibility of dominating the two superior divisions in the Liverpool World Cup, but three pugilists of the island failed to overcome the semifinals. In the Super Complete, Julio César La Cruz, a natural leader of the Antillana squad, succumbed to the Kazakh Aibek Oralbay in a fight that has generated some controversy over the verdict of the judges.
The Camagüeano lost by divided decision (3-2) after a third electric assault, in which he managed to take his rival to the canvas and dominate the cards unanimously. However, in the first round three of the judges gave Oralbay victory, who swept the second voting.
In this way, only the Argentine Manuel Vilarino and the Australian David Evans saw Julio César win, convicted of the verdicts of English Lee Innes, the Japanese Takeyoshi Sonezaki and Egyptian Aabbas Mustafa.
The Cross was then on the bronze medal, its seventh medal on the orb appointments. The Agramontino, now in the division of +90 kilograms, won gold in Baku (2011), Almath (2013), Doha (2015), Hamburg (2017) and Belgrade (2021), and also added a bronze in Yekaterinburg (2019).
The other two Cubans who could not get airy this Friday were Loren Berto Alfonso and Enmanuel Reyes, representatives of Azerbaijan and Spain, respectively. The two Olympic medalists started with a certain favoritism against two young opponents, but finally failed to overcome the exam and frustrated a possible Antillean final in the heavyweights.
Alfonso lost with the Brazilian Isaías Ribeiro, a 23 -year -old boy who did not hold great results in his record. The Pinarño had a majority of the judges in the second and third assault, but it fell unanimously in the first and that cost him in the global computation (3-2).
This is the third orb medal for Loren Berto, who conquered the title in Belgrade 2021 and La Plata in Tashkent 2023 after falling into the final against the Russian Ataev Sharabutdin. In addition, it boasts two Olympic podiums in Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
Boxing World Cup: Two Cuban heavyweights already secured medals for other nations
“The prophet”, meanwhile, could not with the thrust of the Uzbeco Torabek Khabibullaev, who dominated the 4-1 cards. In this way, Reyes is already double world medalist with a pair of bronze medals, just the same result that he achieved in the Parisian summer appointment.
Uzbekistan, team champion in the last edition of the world in Tashkent, already secured seven medals in the World Cup in Liverpool and has six fighters in the late, figure that could still increase.
