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03/22/13 - Associated Press - Cuba eyes semi-pro league to reinvigorate boxing  

By ANNE-MARIE GARCIA, Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) - Protective headgear has been the rule of the ring for more
than 50 years in Cuba, which banned professional boxing shortly after the
1959 revolution.

Back then, pro boxing was deemed corrupting and exploitative, and the big
purses not in line with socialist egalitarian ideals. Now the island is on
verge of relaxing the monopoly of amateur boxing by joining a semi-pro
league in which athletes are paid by sponsors and fight pro-style bouts,
but still retain the Olympic eligibility that's all-important to Cuban
sports authorities. Boxers also would fight without the headgear they have
grown accustomed to.

While officials caution that no decision has been made yet, it could offer
island boxers a chance to earn more money, gain more exposure in
high-profile competitions and help staunch the flow of defections that has
robbed Olympic delegations of some of Cuba's brightest talent and resulted
in disappointing medal counts in recent years.

"It motivates me. It's something new. It's a challenge," world amateur
featherweight champion Lazaro Alvarez told The Associated Press at a local
tournament in an Old Havana gym. "I would really love to take part to be
able to show the world what I am, what Cuban boxing is really all about."

The World Series of Boxing was launched in 2010 by the International Boxing
Association and consists of a dozen teams in two divisions.

During four months of league play that begins each fall, semi-pro
franchises such as the Algeria Desert Hawks and the USA Knockouts face off
in home and away matches, with a post-season playoff in the spring. Some
teams are backed by national boxing federations, while others receive at
least partial private sponsorship: the Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder team,
for instance.

Fighters earn $1,000 to $3,000 a month plus bonuses ranging from $500 to
$2,000. Bouts are five rounds, unlike three in amateur, with a point system
similar to the pros.

That would mean a big raise for Cuban fighters, the most successful of whom
collect lifetime stipends of $100-$300 a month after winning Olympic or
world medals. Others presumably earn an amount closer to the national
average salary of around $20 per month.

In January, World Boxing Association president C.K. Wu visited Cuba for
talks with local authorities and announced that they were seriously
considering their own franchise.

"We have all the elements so that those who must make a decision have the
pros and cons," said Alberto Puig, president of the Cuban Boxing
Federation.

Juan Hernandez, a 44-year-old four-time world amateur welterweight champion
who now works as a trainer, was optimistic that the island will join the
league and breathe life into the sport.

"Cuba seems to be close to taking part in the World Series," Hernandez
said. "I would have liked to participate in a tournament like that, of
course. It's a great challenge and opportunity for the boxers of today."

If Cubans live for baseball above all other sports, boxing probably ranks
second. The first bout took place in 1912 and the annals of Cuban greats
include the likes of Kid Chocolate and Kid Gavilan, both winners of
professional titles, plus other colorful names like "Lightning" Saguero,
"Butter" Jose Legra, the Las Tunas Kid and "Puppy" Garcia.

But in 1961, two years after the Cuban Revolution, all professional sports
were banned and the very concept has been anathema to the island
government's Marxist ideals ever since.

"In our eyes, sport is not just another instrument of the market ... nor of
profit for promoters, agents and all manner of parasites that feed off the
athlete's hard work," Fidel Castro said as recently as 2005.

Cuba nonetheless devotes a considerable amount of its scant resources to
developing amateur talent and has punched above its weight at international
competitions, scoring relatively high in the medal tables for a nation of
around 11 million people.

Former pugilists Felix Savon and the late Teofilo Stevenson are among the
three boxers in history to win gold medals at three Olympic Games, and Cuba
took seven gold medals out of 11 possible at Barcelona in 1992.

Yet low wages, decaying facilities and the lack of opportunities for
athletes to test themselves against the best fighters on the professional
circuit have all contributed to a long, slow decline and costly defections.

After Olympic champions Odlanier Solis, Yurioski Gamboa and Yann Barthelemy
walked away from training in Venezuela in 2006, the Cuban boxing delegation
was left short-gloved two years later in Beijing and went home without a
single gold for the first time in 36 years.

The debacle set off a flood of national soul-searching, with Castro himself
calling for a frank and honest reappraisal of "every human and material
resource we dedicate to the sport. We should be profound in our analyses
(and) apply new ideas, concepts and knowledge."

In 2011, the country lowered the age of competition from 11 to 9 years old,
beginning with a pilot program in Havana, in line with many other
countries' boxing programs, and going semi-pro could be the next step
toward regaining Olympic glory.

In 2015, World Series league fighters will be battling for 30 automatic
tickets for the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro the following year. AIBA
will also hold an individual competition with 70 automatic bids.

Cuban defectors have already shown they can be successful at any level.
Guillermo Rigondeaux, who fled in 2009 after a failed defection attempt two
years earlier, holds the pro title in the super bantamweight class, and
Gamboa was world featherweight champion in 2010.

Island boxers interviewed by the AP were hesitant to talk about money, but
their eyes lit up when asked about the league and what Cuba will bring to
the competition. They spoke of having to learn to be more defensive as the
lack of headgear would leave them more exposed to knockout, but expressed
confidence that they're up to the task.

"I think that without boxers from Cuba it wouldn't be a great championship
due to our country's skill at this sport," said Julio Cesar La Cruz, world
titleholder in the light heavyweight class. "It would be part of my
arsenal. It would be good to test myself there with the same goal (as
always), which is to be an Olympic champion in Rio."

___

Associated Press writer Peter Orsi in Havana contributed to this report.