Havana, April 6 (BNA) Cuba announced this week that its top fighters will join the professional boxing ring after decades of staying away from the sport after former leader Fidel Castro banned the sport for pay after the leftist 1959 revolution.
State TV reported that this year the “Domadores de Cuba” team will participate in several professional leagues after signing a contract with Mexican company Golden Ring Promotions.
“Our boxers will be professional and Olympic champions,” said national team coach Rolando Acipal.
The president of the Cuban Boxing Federation, Alberto Puig, said that several Cuban boxers will make their debut in a professional program in Mexico in May.
“In the first phase, a team of five or six boxers will participate,” Puig said, adding that four Cubans had already signed their three-year contracts, according to Reuters.
Cuban sports officials have said that boxers will receive 80% of the wages for winning fights, while 15% will go to coaches and 5% to medical staff.
In a gym in Old Havana, sweat-soaked boxers celebrated the news while throwing punches.
“This is a ray of hope for Cuban boxing,” coach Alberto Gonzalez told Reuters on Tuesday.
“It will be very beneficial for the Cubans…because the economic situation in the country is dire, and it is a way to help the families of (boxers) financially,” he said.
The “Domadores de Cuba” team has competed since 2014 in the World Boxing Championship (WSB), a semi-professional tournament in which athletes practice boxing without head protection. Cuba has won three of the five events it has participated in through 2018.
Cuba has won 41 gold medals in amateur boxing at the Olympics since 1972, although many top boxers have defected in recent years to participate in professional events in the United States.