Boxing

 

Cuban Boxers - The Secret To Their Success

By Clinton Mollett

17.09 - Lately I've been fascinated by Cuba's dominance in amateur boxing, so I've decided to make it the focus of my article this week. My fascination stems from the fact that Cuba, a small third world country in the Caribbean is producing more World Champions and Olympic Gold Medallists in amateur boxing than any other country, including the United States and Russia. In fact at the 2001 World Amateur Boxing Championships Cuba won more Gold Medals than the rest of the World combined! At the 2000 Olympic Games the Cuban Boxing Team was the most successful out of all the Boxing Teams that entered, picking up 4 Gold Medals (and that's 4 Gold Medals more than the U.S Boxing Team picked up).

Since Cuba's boxers punched their way onto the international stage 30 years ago with their first Gold Medals at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, they have captured a grand total of 27 Gold Medals at the Olympics and have achieved phenomenal success at the Pan Am Games and Goodwill Games with chilling demonstrations of boxing supremacy. Two of Cuba's former heavyweight champions are perfect examples of this success; Teolifo Stevenson is a 3-Time Olympic Gold Medallist & 3-Time World Champion who terrorized the heavyweight division during the 1970's, whilst Felix Savon is also a 3-Time Olympic Gold Medallist & 6-Time World Champion who first won a Gold at the 1986 Junior World Championships, a Gold at the 1987 Senior World Championships and a Gold at the 1988 Olympic Games with many repeated successes after that, his last coming from the 2000 Olympic Games with a Gold Medal. There are also other Cuban boxers that have achieved similar results, Angel Herrera, Hector Vinent and more recently Ariel Hernandez are all 2-Time Olympic Gold Medallists.

But Cuba is a small country with little money, it's world beaters cycling to training sessions wearing frayed tracksuits. So what is the secret to Cuba's boxing success ? Well before Fidel Castro's Government took power in 1959, Cuba's achievements in amateur boxing were slight, their boxing style was derived from American Professional Boxing, but after the revolution American influence in Cuban Boxing began to wean and a strong Eastern European presence became apparent. There is evidence to suggest that sometime during the early 1960's, after Castro's Communist Government took power, trainers, coaches and other boxing experts from East Germany, Bulgaria and the Soviet Union came to Cuba to help setup an elite athletic school and organize a coherent system to seek out and develop athletic talent.

The system works like this... in their grammar schools, sports is given a high priority and Cuban children are forcibly encouraged to participate in these sports and it's there that their potential talent as a baseball player, athlete or boxer is spotted. From the age of 12, talented youngsters are sent to special schools where their skills are nurtured and developed. From there they pass through a very competitive youth scheme and all along the top trainers, led by the ever-vigilant national coach Sarbelo Fuentes, are keeping an eye on the impending talent, few, if any, slip through the gaps. The ones that graduate from that get sent to Wajay, the top school where they are methodically put through carefully thought-out drills, all their training having purpose and being incredibly demanding of the boxer.

It is also the system of Cuba, the support that the state gives to sport, that has made these results possible. The boxing success obviously serving a political purpose in that Cuba's, young and healthy sportsmen and women provide an advert on the world stage for its communist system, but it's success is not only confined to boxing, the Cuban women's volleyball team is the best in the world and has won three straight Olympic Gold Medals, while it's baseball team were unbeatable World champions year after year, only losing to the U.S Baseball Team at the 2000 Olympic Games for the first time ever, suggesting whatever applies to Cuba's boxing success, also applies to other sports.

As amatuers, Cuban Boxers are rewarded with prestige, the opportunity to travel and upon retirement, perhaps a second hand car. After a career of fighting for their country, and not much else, most Cuban boxers stay in the sport either as administrators or trainers and that way the knowledge and experiance is passed down to the next generation of sportsmen. That next generation is pummelling away at punch bags in youth gyms all over Cuba.

Boxing - where two individuals battle it out in the ring, in Cuba is a team sport. The boxers grow up together, train and travel together and, of course, fight one another, often meeting tougher opponents in their National and Regional championships than they do in the Olympics.


Clinton Mollett can be reached at fightgame94@hotmail.com

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