Cuban Billy Rodríguez will not be able to debut this Sunday as professional boxer as planned, and not exactly his fault.
Rodríguez, who is part of the Domadores de Cuba squad —which fights under the auspices of the Cuban Federation and the Mexican company Golden Ring— was going to start his professional career tonight in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he would face the local Sergio Daniel Rosales.
However, his debut had to be postponed “for reasons inherent to his opponent”, as reported the website Hit.
According to the sports publication, which cites a statement from the promoter Golden Ring, the Argentine Rosales “did not meet the established weight of 108 pounds or the limits approved in the regulations.”
Given this situation and in compliance with the current regulations, the authorities in charge “did not endorse the fight as there was a weight difference that contravenes what is established in the regulations,” confirms the note, which emphasizes that what happened responds to the “unique and exclusive irresponsibility of Billy Rodríguez’s rival.”
The Golden Ring communication points out that Rodríguez, current continental monarch, and his trainer Julio Lázaro Mena, who traveled to Argentina on time, “fulfilled their commitment, always showing a professionalism that characterizes Cuban boxing.”
The Mexican company reiterates its commitment “to enforce the agreements in which Cuban boxers participate in professional boxing, always putting the physical integrity of the athlete above any commercial agreement.”
After this mishap, Golden Ring does not specify a possible date and rival for Rodríguez’s debut in professionalism, but affirms that later it will be reporting “new scheduled dates where Cuban boxers take part in professional boxing.”
Billy Rodríguez was going to be the seventh fighter who, under the protection of the Cuban Federation, would debut in professional boxing circuits. Previously, six other fighters from the island, members of the Tamers of Cuba, they won their lawsuits —five of them by KO— in a program held on May 20 in the Mexican city of Aguascalientes.
The irruption of Cuban amateur boxers in boxing for rent comes from the hand of the Mexican promotion company Golden Ring Promotions, with which recently signed a representation contract to venture into the different professional circuits.
Until then, boxers from the Island had to leave the country and cut their ties with the national federation to make a professional career, mainly in the United States. Several of them, active or already out of the ring, have achieved important successes in rented circuits and have even held the championship belt, as confirmation of the quality of Cuban boxing.
