(Havana) Julio César La Cruz and Arlen Lopez, double Olympic champions in the amateur ranks, are the first boxers residing in Cuba to appear in the rankings of the WBC, one of the two major world professional boxing federations with the WBA , announced the Cuban Boxing Federation on Wednesday.
La Cruz and Lopez are the first two Cuban boxers residing on the island to appear in the WBC rankings, which already include other boxers of Cuban origin, but who have chosen exile in order to be able to embark on a professional career.
La Cruz, 33, double Olympic champion 2016 and 2020, ranks twentieth in the light heavyweight category, and Lopez, 29, double Olympic champion 2016 and 2020 twenty-seventh in the light heavyweight category.
PHOTO THEMBA HADEBE, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Julio Cesar La Cruz
It is a new page of history that turns, after the decision by the Cuban authorities, in May 2022, to authorize several of its boxers to participate in professional fights after sixty years of prohibition by Fidel Castro from professional sport. in Cuba, three years after the Revolution.
According to the president of the Cuban Boxing Federation, Alberto Puig, quoted by the online newspaper Jit, of the Cuban Institute of Sports, this decision is further proof of the “recognition of Cuban boxing”, which brought 80 titles world championships and 41 Olympic titles in Cuba.