Rigondeaux possibly defects

ABA Boxing · Post by **ABA Boxing** » 03 Aug 2007, 13:13

Kolya wrote:Guys; I don't know how accurate it is; but I just read that both Rigondeaux and Lara were arrested in Brazil and might be getting deported back to Cuba. :(

Two Cuban boxers who disappeared during last month's Pan American Games were found at a resort near Rio, where police say they partied and ran up an exorbitant tab.

Now, a police inspector says, they want to go back to Cuba. Two-time Olympic boxing champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara were found Thursday at an inn in the coastal resort city Cabo Frio.

"We still have to clear up the reason why they abandoned their delegation and now want to return," federal police inspector Felicio Laterca said. "Right now, they are only saying they are very dear athletes in their country and that's why they want to return."

The 25-year-old Rigondeaux failed to attend the weigh-in for his bantamweight bout against Carlos Cuadras of Mexico. Lara, 24, did not show for his welterweight fight against Ricardo Smith of Jamaica. Rigondeaux and Lara were disqualified and their opponents advanced to the semifinals.

The two boxers also said they had been contacted by a German businessman, and they gave their uniforms and passports to him. Last month, German cable station Arena TV said it had signed Lara and Rigondeaux to five-year contracts. Details of that deal are not clear. Police said the pair had declined representation from lawyers apparently sent by the German businessman.

"We planned to sign them. If the contracts are signed or not, only Ahmet Oner can tell you," Arena spokesman Thomas Nuenzig said, referring to the company's owner.

Cuban President Fidel Castro blamed American money for their defection, saying the boxers were "knocked down with a blow straight to the chin, paid up with U.S. bills."

Laterca said the two boxers were staying at a hotel and remained at liberty, but were being monitored by police. Police had contacted the Cuban embassy to secure passports for the two men.

No one at the Cuban embassy was immediately available to comment.

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » 03 Aug 2007, 14:00

Dear Christ; those two just aren't tools, they're the whole freakin' shed. Why is it when a lot of Cuban boxers defect it seems, they get carried away by the life available in the West and go nuts on it? I guess because they don't have that opportunity in Cuba. But why, I can not even begin to understand it; if you've escaped from Cuba would they want to go back? I just don't get it. They had lucrative pro contracts in a free country waiting for them and they want to give it up and go back? Being born and living my first few years in a Communist state; it just baffles me how anyone who escaped would want to go back now.

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » 03 Aug 2007, 23:26

Cuba is their home. Maybe, just maybe they got homesick. It could be they wanted to return to girlfriends, family and friends. We have boxers that refuse to go on international competitions because they can't stand being away from home.

locoxelbox · Post by **locoxelbox** » 05 Aug 2007, 11:37

boxmel wrote:The percentage of U.S. amateurs doing well in the pros is much higher than that of any of the Cubans who have defected. Hurtado and Casamayor, I think, have been the best so far. Of course, there ARE more U.S. amateurs than there are Cubans who have defected......

I'm not sure about that Mel. The US olympians are the No 1's in their country and less than 50% become world champions. The only No 1 boxers from Cuba who have defected are Joel Casamayor, Diosvelis Hurtado, Ramon Garbey, Yoan Pablo Hernandez, Odlanier Solis, Yuriolkis Gamboa and Yan Barthelemi.
Casamayor and Hurtado became world champions while Garbey failed. The others are too early in their pro careers to know how well they can do but if they are somewhat disciplined some of them are likely to win a world title.
Juan Carlos Gomez was the No 2 when he defected and became a world champ making ten defences of his title. Other cuban boxers who have defected were a) past their prime (Jorge Luis Gonzalez, Ramon Ledon, etc) or b) not top cuban boxers (Eliecer Castillo, Damian Norris, Mario Iribarren, etc).

boxmel · Post by **boxmel** » 05 Aug 2007, 12:35

I think we said the same thing.....

Except I wasn't talking about US amateurs who were just Olympians. We have had many #1 ranked boxers go on to win world titles (especially now that there are 4,568 belts).

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » 05 Aug 2007, 17:44

Well, apparently they're back in Cuba. I assume their international boxing careers are over; at least for the rest of Castro's lifetime. Unless they undergo some serious brainwashing to make them reliable again, they aren't leaving the island. God, what was going through their minds?

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » 06 Aug 2007, 18:03

boxmel wrote:I think we said the same thing..... Except I wasn't talking about US amateurs who were just Olympians. We have had many #1 ranked boxers go on to win world titles (especially now that there are 4,568 belts).

I think you miscounted Mel - the number must be higher than that.

boxmel · Post by **boxmel** » 06 Aug 2007, 19:37

Ahhh, yes - there IS the barest possibility I left out a few belts currently available. I think I gave up counting after the "Intercontenintal Western European Under Age Youth Interim World Championship."

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » 06 Aug 2007, 23:52

Is that in the super Junior middle light featherweight division?

boxmel · Post by **boxmel** » 07 Aug 2007, 08:56

Darn, Dennis - you really DO know your belts! I believe that one is as you describe.

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » 07 Aug 2007, 10:51

Mel - I try to stay up on all the weight classes!!!

Kolya wrote:Well, apparently they're back in Cuba. I assume their international boxing careers are over; at least for the rest of Castro's lifetime. Unless they undergo some serious brainwashing to make them reliable again, they aren't leaving the island. God, what was going through their minds?

Kolya - I wondered the same thing. Maybe that is what they wanted - to have their boxing careers over. If you are at their level, do you think the Cuban government is going to let you retire while you are in your prime?

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » 07 Aug 2007, 13:39

Dennis wrote:Mel - I try to stay up on all the weight classes!!!

Kolya wrote:Well, apparently they're back in Cuba. I assume their international boxing careers are over; at least for the rest of Castro's lifetime. Unless they undergo some serious brainwashing to make them reliable again, they aren't leaving the island. God, what was going through their minds?
Kolya - I wondered the same thing. Maybe that is what they wanted - to have their boxing careers over. If you are at their level, do you think the Cuban government is going to let you retire while you are in your prime?

Good thoughts. From what I read, Castro confirmed in some article they will never box again. They won't go to jail, apparently, and will be given jobs in the boxing program; maybe as trainers or sparring partners? But they will never be part of the Cuban boxing team again.

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » 07 Aug 2007, 13:45

Yep, maybe they just got what they wanted.

Kolya · Post by **Kolya** » 07 Aug 2007, 13:57

Dennis wrote:Yep, maybe they just got what they wanted.

Well, when you've been boxing as long as they have, and have won like 243 out of 248 fights, and are a two time Olympic Gold Medalist; with the possibility to become a 4 or 5 time Gold Medalist, sometimes.....you just want to....retire?

Onekrazyrican · Post by **Onekrazyrican** » 07 Aug 2007, 19:27

Maybe they feared for their families safety. After loosing three of the bests followed by 2 more one would expect Castro and his crew would be really pissed off and willing to do whatever it takes to avoid it becoming a trend.

I guess they have sucseeded.

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » 08 Aug 2007, 12:40

Castro is blaming the U.S. for the two boxers leaving the Pan Am Games even though it was a German promoter, Arena, that signed them to 5 year contracts. It didn't sound like any U.S. promoters were involved. Now Castro is threatening to not send a boxing team to the World Championships in Chicago and possibly not sending a team to Beijing for the '08 Olympics. He would rather forgo winning medals than risk having a few athletes defect. Amazing.

boxmel · Post by **boxmel** » 08 Aug 2007, 12:46

Do you remember when the Cubans threatened to boycott at the Worlds in Atlanta? They created quite a stir and did manage to get the jury to overturn a supposedly very bad decision. If they boycott the 2007 Worlds and the 2008 Olympics they are only cutting off their noses to spite their faces - it will make it somewhat easier if they aren't there. But I feel sorry for the athletes who have to pay the price. Maybe Castro needs to examine why Rigondeaux and others are defecting.

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » 08 Aug 2007, 13:17

I agree with you Mel, but Castro at 81 is unlikely to examine why anyone would want to leave Cuba. He is set in his ways just a little bit.

boxmel · Post by **boxmel** » 08 Aug 2007, 14:17

Heh heh - I was being facetious.

Castro says Cuba might not send boxers to world championships to prevent defections

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press Writer
August 8, 2007

HAVANA (AP) -- Fidel Castro might bar Cuban boxers from competing in the world championships in Chicago and other qualifying events leading to the Beijing Olympics to prevent possible defections.

Castro wrote in a column in official newspapers that two Cuban boxers who disappeared during the Pan American Games in Brazil last month, only to be arrested and sent back to the island, "had reached the point of no return" with the national boxing team.

"The athlete who abandons his delegation is not unlike the soldier who abandons his fellow men in the midst of combat," he said.

Guillermo Rigondeaux, a two-time Olympic bantamweight champion, and Erislandy Lara, a welterweight world champion, arrived Sunday in Cuba. They were sent to state guest houses for more than two days, then released while the communist government decides what to do with them.

Rigondeaux returned to the Havana apartment he shares with his family Wednesday, saying he never intended to defect. Lara's family lives in the easternmost province of Guantanamo and could not be immediately located.

"I was always ready to return to the fatherland," Rigondeaux told The Associated Press at his apartment. "People didn't believe I would stay."

He called his disappearance in Brazil a moment of great "indiscipline" and said he supports Castro's Cuban revolution wholeheartedly: "I am very revolutionary."

Rigondeaux said he met with top Communist Party members since his return and was waiting for "reorientation," so he can do "what the superiors say." But he said he also hoped to fight again someday.

"I want to reclaim my titles," he said. "Retake what I've lost."

Castro said Cuban officials were compiling the list of fighters for the 2008 Olympics, a squad that was scheduled to compete in Chicago and in two other qualifying events before the Beijing Games.

"Just picture the mafia sharks lurking about in search of fresh meat," Castro wrote of would-be promoters who could try to persuade Cuban fighters to desert.

He said Cuban sports officials hoping to prevent defections are "analyzing all possible alternatives, including the option of changing the list of boxers or of not sending any delegation whatsoever, in spite of the penalties that may be in store for us."

"Cuba will not sacrifice one bit of honor, nor any of its ideas, for Olympic gold medals," Castro wrote. "The morale and patriotism of its athletes shall prevail above all else."

Cuba is a boxing power. At the 2004 Athens Games, Cuba had five golds among its nine medals in the sport.

Arena, a German boxing promotion company, announced in July it signed Lara and Rigondeaux to five-year contracts. But the fighters were arrested in the coastal resort city of Cabo Frio for overstaying their visas. The fighters told police they wanted to return to Cuba and hinted they were tricked into deserting, maybe even drugged by promoters.

Castro wrote Wednesday that Cuba's government "kept its word," treating the deported boxers humanely. He said Cuban state media interviewed them, but the stories have not appeared in government-controlled newspapers or on television -- apparently because reporters were not convinced Rigondeaux and Lara sincerely wanted to return to Cuba before their arrests.

Castro blamed the disappearances on Lara, writing that "who, as captain of the boxing team, broke the rules and played directly into the hands of the mercenaries."

boxmel · Post by **boxmel** » 21 Aug 2007, 11:02

Cuba has applied for visas to attend the Worlds.

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » 21 Aug 2007, 13:08

I bet the request for visas does not include those 2 boxers.

boxmel · Post by **boxmel** » 21 Aug 2007, 16:54

No - Castro has already stated he demoted them. 8) But he isn't pulling the team out of the Worlds like he threatened.

Ulysses · Post by **Ulysses** » 23 Aug 2007, 09:24

This is an all-round tragic story... for Rigondeaux to never box again would be a travesty. He is one of the greatest amateur boxers off all time and in the prime of his career... :(

emile · Post by **emile** » 23 Aug 2007, 10:41

It would be a good PR move for Castro to let them back in - a magnanimous gesture that would be well received abroad. But if he let them back and they defected again, that would be pretty embarrassing. I agree it would be a tragedy if Rigo and Lara never box competitively again.

I wonder if the possibility of the worst Cuban Olympic team in a long, long time will make a difference. Even Cuba can't lose five gold medallists and recover - I don't see them winning a single gold with their current team.

JMac · Post by **JMac** » 06 Sep 2007, 15:45

Story on ESPN website says two guys working for the German promoter posed as reporters to get access to the Cuban boxers. Here's the link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing ... id=3000934