HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 22 (ACN) Headed by three of its four Tokyo-2020 champions, the Cuban boxing team will leave Uzbekistan today for Belgrade, capital of Serbia, to take part in the upcoming World Boxing Championships to be held from Oct. 25 to Nov. 5.
The Cuban team, led by Rolando Acebal, made a fruitful training base of more than 10 days in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where they improved details for the world championship.
They carried out seven sparring sessions (training with gloves) with four different boxers from the Uzbek pre-selection that will also participate in the world tournament and that, along with Cubans, is the pre-competition favorite to win the world title.
The Cuban roster is led by Julio Cesar La Cruz, four-time world champion and two-time Olympic champion, who will now debut in the new 92 kilogram division in search of a fifth world crown that escaped him two years ago in the Yekaterinburg, Russia, where he finished with a bronze medal in the 81 kilogram division.
La Cruz will be joined by Andy Cruz (63.5 kg) and the experienced Roniel Iglesias (71), who also won the crown in the Japanese capital.
Alvarez (60) is the other world champion included in the group of eight fighters and will go to Belgrade in search of his fourth world title.
The squad is completed with Osvel Caballero ( 57), Kevin Brown ( 67), Yoenlis Feliciano Hernandez ( 75) and Herich Ruiz ( 86).
Undoubtedly, the Cubans will try to erase the bad image of the last event in Yekaterinburg, Russia 2019, where they finished fourth with a gold, a silver and a bronze medal, behind the teams of Uzbekistan (3-1-1), Russia (3-0-1) and Kazakhstan (1-1-4).
