HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 4 (ACN) The Cuban boxing team will be represented today by five fighters in the 26-bout semifinals of the World Boxing Championship in Belgrade, Serbia.
Cuba participated with eight out of 13 possible boxers, and now is tied with Azerbaijan and Russia, whereas the United States—the big surprise of the competition—follows closely behind with four men in the lineup.
Three of head coach Rolando Acebal’s five disciples who will try to secure a silver medal today are debutants in world championships, so they will have to be very careful to get a good result.
Osvel Caballero (57 kg) will face Kazakhstan’s Serik Temirzhanov; middleweight Yoenlis Hernández will be opposite the Italian Salvatore Cavallaro; the debutant Herich Ruiz (86 kg) will fight with Loren Alfonso Dominguez, a Cuban who naturalized Azeri; two-time world champion and Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz (63.5 kg) will be dealing with the Thai Somchay Wongsuwan; and the four-time world champion and double Olympic titleholder Julio Cesar La Cruz (92 kg) will face Uzbekistan’s Madiyar Saydrakhimov, whom he already beat in the 2018 World Series of Boxing.
With 21 wins and 3 losses so far, Cuba is in a position to improve the fourth place of the last 2019 World Championship in Ekaterinburg, where its boxers won a medal of each color.
