The Irish and international amateur boxing community are waiting with interest to see if Cuban President Fidel Castro goes ahead with his threat to pull the entire Cuban boxing squad out of next October’s World Championships in Chicago.
Castro has threatened to withdraw his country’s first team from the Chicago tournament –which will also act as a qualifier for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing – following two alleged defections during last month’s Pan American Games in Brazil.
Most nations competing in Chicago will be eager to avoid the Cubans – who have won almost 60 gold medals at World Championship level since 1974 – and the Russians in the preliminary rounds. But Castro has threatened to replace the Cuban first team with a second-string selection for Chicago, and is even considering not sending a team at all.
Castro spoke out after Cuban boxers Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara both failed to show up for the weigh-in for the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro and reportedly fled to Germany to sign professional deals. However, both men have since returned to Cuba, and Castro insists they will be treated fairly.
“The athlete who abandons his delegation is not unlike the soldier who abandons his fellow men in the midst of combat,” he was quoted as saying in a state-run newspaper. “The morale and patriotism of Cuba’s athletes shall prevail above all else.”
It is not clear whether Rigondeaux, a double Olympic and world bantamweight champion, and Lara, a world welterweight champion, will ever box for their country again, as Castro also wrote that the duo had reached a “point of no return”.
The Irish senior boxing team – who dominated last June’s European Union Championships at the National Stadium in Dublin, winning three gold and two silver medals – finished a five-day training camp at the University of Limerick last weekend, and according to Irish captain Ken Egan, they got an enormous amount of work done on Shannonside.
He said: “We are preparing for a round robin tournament in Germany later this month and the training camp at the University of Limerick was ideal as there are excellent facilities down here. Everything is geared toward the World Championships in Chicago this year and our preparations are going very well.
“It will be interesting to see what way the situation with the Cuban team develops as we are all aware of what they are capable of. But their second-string squad is almost as good as their first and they are always difficult to beat no matter what team they put out.”
Irish boxing chiefs will announce their squad for Chicago later this month. A record 118 nations will compete in the World Champion-ships at the University of Illinois.
Meanwhile, as the Irish men’s team have Olympic qualification in their sights, Irish world and back-to-back European lightweight champion Katie Taylor will have to be content with defending her European women’s title in Denmark in October.
It is one of the great tragedies of Irish sport that Taylor will not be able to compete at Olympic level as women’s boxing has not been included as a sport for the 2008 games in Beijing. If it had, then Taylor – ranked number one in the world in her weight class – would be a red-hot favourite to win a medal.
As it is, the 21-year-old will have to wait until the female version of the noble art takes its bow at the 2012 Olympics in London, over 100 years after men’s boxing was introduced as an Olympic sport.
Last weekend Taylor confirmed exactly why she is the best in the world after winning her second Witch Cup gold medal on the trot in Pecs, Hungary after stopping Finland’s Eva Walstrom on the 15-point rule in round two of their 60kg final.
In her three fights in Hun-gary, Taylor – who also rec-eived the boxer of the tournament award – spent less than 11 minutes in the ring, winning two fights inside the distance and racking up 41 points while conceding just five against three boxers who are all included in the top 15 in the world rankings.
The victory will be the perfect boost for the St Fergal’s Bray club member, who will be targeting her third European gold medal in a row in Denmark this October.
Commenting on the win, coach Peter Taylor, who was in his daughter’s corner in Pecs, said they were delighted with the performance and the gold medal: “It is a great boost ahead of the European Championships as this is a very competitive tournament and most of the countries competing out here send their strongest squads.
“Katie had an injury to her right elbow which prevented her from throwing straight rights, but the injury should be cleared up soon. We are delighted with the win and the boxer of the tournament award and we are now looking forward to the European Championships.”
In pro news, undefeated Irish middleweight Andy Lee is in training with world middleweight champ Jermain Taylor ahead of his appearance on the Bernard Dunne/Kiko Martinez undercard at the Point in Dublin on 25 August.
Lee has been provisionally pencilled in to meet American Brad Austin in his 11th pro fight at the Point, and says he can’t wait to make his home debut.
However, the 22-year-old Limerick southpaw, now fighting out of the Kronk Gym in Detroit, admitted that he was lucky to have escaped uninjured after he was involved in a car accident last weekend in the USA.
The accident occurred when the Rolls Royce driven by Lee’s manager and coach Emanuel Stewart blew a tyre and skidded off the road outside Detroit. Lee was a front-seat passenger in the car, but fortunately neither he nor Stewart sustained any injuries after the car hit a separation wall on a freeway.
Lee said: “It was one of the scariest moments of my life and we were very shaken after the accident, but thankfully no one was hurt and it won’t affect my plans to fight in Dublin.”
The middleweight is presently training in the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania along with Taylor, Jonathan Banks and Kermit Clintron. The ex-Irish Olympian will be making his first appearance as a professional in Ireland on 25 August against Austin, who has won eight from 11.
“I’m in top shape for my fight in Dublin and I am really looking forward to what should be a fantastic night at the Point,” Lee added.
In other news, unbeaten Dublin featherweight Patrick Hyland has pulled out of the ‘Battle on Leeside’ event at City Hall Cork on 18 August after sustaining a rib injury during sparring.
Hyland has been replaced by Belfast’s Ciaran Healy on a card which also includes Neil Sinclair, Jason McKay, Declan Timlin and Billy Walsh.
