Boxing: Cuban multi-champion Julio César La Cruz appears in Quilmes

The Roberto Rodríguez stadium of the El Porvenir de Quilmes Social and Sports Club, belonging to the Commercial Employees Center of that district, was inaugurated in October 2013. Since then it has hosted dozens of boxing evenings. This Sunday will be the home of one of the best amateur boxers on the planet, Cuban Julio César La Cruzwill take his second step in his professional activity on the basis of the decision of the sporting authorities of his country in this regard.

The two-time Olympic champion and the five-time amateur world champion he will face Juan Rodolfo Juárez of Buenos Aires in a fight framed in the cruise division and agreed on six rounds that will serve as a complement to the duel in the background of the billboard between Laureano Sciuto from Sampedrino and Jesús Geles from Colombia. The evening, organized by Chino Maidana Promotionscan be seen via ESPN 2 and Star + from 9pm.

La Cruz, captain of the Cuban national team, was one of six boxers from that country who appeared on May 20 (and won) at a festival held in the Palenque of the San Marcos National Fair in Aguascalientes (Mexico) and which marked the reintegration of boxers from the largest of the Antilles into paid boxing after 60 years of the agreement between the Cuban Boxing Federation (FCB) and the promoter Golden Ring.

That night, the 33-year-old from Camagüey, gold medal in Rio de Janeiro 2016 (in the category up to 81 kilos) and Tokyo 2020 (in the division up to 91 kilos), imposed technique and power against the Colombian expert Deivis Casseres, who had a record of 27 wins and 15 defeats: he sent him to la canvas in the first round with a right hand to the body, subjected him to intense punishment and dropped him again in the second round with a hook to the right temple before referee César Castañón decreed the TKO.

After that victory, the flagship of the Domadores de Cuba made sure that she was ready to face a fight for the world crown in the cruise division, in which Armenian Arsen Goulamirian (World Boxing Association), Congolese Ilunga Makabu (World Boxing Council) , the British Lawrence Okolie (World Boxing Organization) and the Australian Jai Opetaia (International Boxing Federation).

However, the Shadow he made it clear that his priority was to represent his country and that his next big goals were the Central American Games in San Salvador, the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile, the International Boxing Association (IBA) World Cup in Tashkent – all in 2023 – and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. In this sense, in June he became champion in the 59th edition of the traditional National Boxing Tournament of Playa Girón, representing the team from the province of Camagüey.

In any case, this will not prevent him from continuing to gain experience in the professional circuit and for this reason he has recently traveled to Argentina. It will be the first time he will fight in the country in his 19-year career since his frustrated visit in March 2020: He would have been one of eight Cuban representatives who would have participated in the Pre-Olympic Americas, a qualifier for the Tokyo Games, but that tournament was first postponed and then permanently canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For the Caribbean to land on these lands, an agreement between Chino Maidana Promotions and Gold Ring Promotions, the Mexican company to which the Cuban Boxing Federation has been associated to include its top exponents in the rental field. “We try to bring the best to Argentina,” explained the promoter of the former world super light and welterweight champion. And they were confident that the stadium The future of Quilmeswhich is located on Moreno and Primera Junta, will fill up for this evening.

It was originally planned that La Cruz would face Ensenada Massimiliano Corzo, who has a record of 6 wins, 8 losses and 1 draw, but in the end it was decided that his opponent would be Juárez, who has a service record with a positive balance: 20 wins (14 before the limit) and 7 setbacks. However, the bean he has lost five of his last seven fights and was eliminated in four of them. In his latest presentation, he fell in the second round against the veteran Firat Arslan German (51), former World Boxing Association cruise weight champion.

Between wins and losses

Arlen López, Roniel Iglesias, Lázaro Álvarez, Yoenlis Feliciano Hernández and Osvel Caballero were the five boxers who, along with La Cruz, fought on May 20 in Aguascalientes at the festival that marked the return of Cuban boxing to the professional universe. after the revolutionary government abolished paid sport in 1961.

After that night, in which the six ended up with their arms raised, three of them returned to appear in wage struggles last month: Iglesias beat Mexican Agustín Lugo by points in Monterrey, Álvarez beat Alexis Torres of Buenos Aires at the cards in Santa Cruz de la Sierra (in an evening also organized by Chino Maidana Promotions) and Caballero have eliminated the Venezuelan Pedro Pineda in Barranquilla. This Sunday it will be the turn of La Cruz and next Friday it will be the turn of Hernández in Uruapan (Mexico) against the local Oziel Emmanuel Santoyo.

Although this new dynamic offers Antillean fighters the opportunity to obtain additional income (the agreement between FCB and Golden Ring stipulates that the boxer keeps 80% of the agreed purse in every race), not everyone saw it as a step forward.

Last weekend Billy Rodríguez, from Havana, who became continental champion in Guayaquil in early April, made his professional debut by beating Miguel Luna Tlapaya in the second round in La Paz (Mexico). Hours later, he deserted. “Turning his back on his contractual obligations, he has decided not to return to Cuba. We condemn his attitude of him, unaware of the commitment made”, reproached the managers of the chosen team in a message shared on the Tamers Facebook page.

She wasn’t the first victim this year. At the end of March, during a stopover in Panama as the Cuban team traveled to Guayaquil for the continental championship in which Rodríguez would win, Kevin Brown, representative of the division up to 67 kilos, defected. And Herich Ruiz left the delegation before one of the semifinals of the category up to 86 kilos of that tournament that he had to star against the American Arjan Iseni.

The other loss, perhaps the most expensive, was that of Andy Cruz, Olympic champion in Tokyo in the category up to 63 kilos. The talented boxer born in Matanzas 27 years ago would have been one of those who would have competed on the evening of Aguascalientes in May, but was excluded at the last minute for not being in optimal conditions, like Alberto Puig de la Barca, president of l ‘ FCB, explained at the time. .

A month later, authorities found that Cruz had attempted to leave the country illegally. And on July 18, the National Boxing Commission ordered his expulsion from the Cuban sports facility. “The measure was adopted in the face of repeated indiscipline. The course also took into account absences and delays in training courses, absences from teaching activities, marked by a significant decline in academic performance, and the way in which he turned his back on the commitments made in the various meetings organized by the management. of the National Institute of Sport, Physical Education and Recreation ”, justified the organism.