Ask anyone with a smattering of interest in amateur boxing and they’ll readily tell you which country has the best protagonists of the noble art.
Boxing is a way of life for many youngsters |
It used to be the United States but that mantle was passed over to Cuba in the Eighties who now dominate every major tournament they enter. If Olympic medals are the benchmark for excellence, Cuba wins hands down. Of the 11 Cubans entered in the last Olympics, in Athens, eight got medals, including five golds and two silvers. Not bad for a country of only 11 million compared to the United States 301 million with nothing like the sort of resources the Americans enjoy. In the Sydney Olympics in 2000, Cuba took six medals, four of them gold. Since 1972, the country has won 27 boxing golds, an amazing figure considering they boycotted two Olympics.
Poverty and supreme coaching have always been major factors in boxing success and Cuba has both in abundance.
On a trip to Cuba last week I visited the legendary the Rafel Treso Gimnasio De Boxeo in Havana. Basic, aged facilities yet the place was swarming with kids aged between 10 and 14 prepared to put themselves through years of painful training and competition to make it to the top. Too poor to own gym kit, they trained in their street clothes. In a communist state where sporting excellence reaps fabulous rewards – like houses and cars – these youngsters are inspired by previous generations, who have gone on to millionaire status in the United States as pro fighters.
Fidel Castro banned professional sports from Cuba in 1962 yet he still recognised the importance of sporting excellence in nurturing national pride and international respect which is why the relatively small island has been so successful in not just boxing but many other mainstream sports, like baseball which is the island’s No.1. World champion Cuban fighters from previous eras like Kid Chocolate and Kid Gavilan are still immortalised there.
Cuba’s success can be put down to conditioning and discipline. They also have a reputation for fighting the last round harder than the first.
The coach credited with building the dynasty is Alcides Sagarra, a strict disciplinarian who began the programme in 1964.
The first Cuban to gain universal recognition was the legendary heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson who was succeeded by the equally successful Felix Savon. They each won three Olympic gold medals and totally dominated the heavyweights of their era. Stevenson was so good that several promoters, including Don King, tried to entice him to fight Muhammad Ali. But loyal to Castro to this day, Stevenson refused the astonishing offers.
Savon was also bombarded with lucrative contracts. King once offered him $10 million to turn pro to which Savon famously replied: ‘What do I need $10 million for when I have 11 million Cubans behind me.’
Critics of Cuba’s dominance maintain that they are generally mature men in their late 20s and early 30s fighting teenagers and youngsters less mature physically and mentally. It’s a good point because top amateurs generally turn pro in their early twenties. Cubans, of course, don’t have that option so are effectively professionals fighting part-time amateurs.
That theory stands up when considering Jorge Luis Gonzalez, a 6ft 7in Cuban heavyweight. He can boast he beat Lennox Lewis and Riddick Bowe in the amateurs within a few days of each other. Gonzalez defected to the United States in 1991, won his first 23 fights before being stopped by Bowe in the sixth round of a WBO heavyweight title bout. He lost his way after that and his career fizzled out.
Defecting is a huge decision because Cuba has a policy of not allowing any contact nor financial reward for the family left behind. Yet boxing still remains a route to a better life there and the programme is just as strong today as when Sagarra started it four decades ago.
Defecting has become a big issue which is why Cuba won’t be sending a boxing team to the world championships in Chicago next month to avoid attempted defections.
Cuba’s boxing federation said the tournament would not expose its boxers to ‘traffickers’, who will attempt to lure them away with offers of professional contracts. In July, two Cuban boxers abandoned their team at the Pan Am Games in Brazil but returned after thinking over the consequences.
The world championships are a qualifying event for the Beijing Olympics next year. But there will be smaller tournaments they can qualify for after Chicago where, presumably, it won’t be so easy to defect.
One advocate of the Cuban way is Cayman’s Mr Boxing, Nayon ‘Donie’ Anglin. He was the island’s top amateur in the Seventies and Eighties and had the opportunity arisen might have made a world class pro.
Anglin, 49, runs the Cayman Islands Boxing Club in George Town and is forever impressed by the standards of the Cuban set up. ‘It’s the best place for any amateur to train,’ he reckons. ‘There’s so much going on. I’ve been three times. That’s their life. They keep up to date with everything going on and even have an influence on changing the rules. I took a camp there for three weeks to prepare for the Olympic trials four years ago. Troy O’Neil was our best boxer then but he’d only had a few fights and was too inexperienced to make it to the Olympics.
‘Their conditioning is fantastic. They have different routines too, like hitting a massive truck tyre with a big mallet. The mallet bounces off the tyre in different directions so it helps develop your strength, balance and co-ordination. It’s like chopping a tree and also strengthens your wrists so you punch harder.’
Anglin’s Cuba experience contributed to his overall knowledge of boxing. Besides coaching he is a qualified referee and judge in both amateur and professional codes.
‘They also do a work out when they only aim for your shoulders. It helps develop you ability to slip punches. The coaches show you the best way to stretch and loosen up in preparation for sparring. And their pad work is great too. It’s a pleasure to watch these guys spar. They spar like a real fight. And if you get cut you lose the chance to enter the next competition. So there’s that extra competitive element. When you win, you’re set for life with a house and car.’
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