The worst year for Cuban boxing ?

[ValMar]

Rigo, Dorticos, Barrera, Ortiz, Barthelemy..............
What do you think ?
I have to mention T. Stevenson, the best boxer I have ever seen (in his time, amateur boxing has not been senseless as nowadays).

[Ruthless-RKO]

Well, Lara is next..

Technically Rigo was last year.. But Yeh, it's still last 12 months.

[asdfjkl]

People now dare to fight them, now they are a milion year old

[Mexi-Box]

Actually a good post. Cuba's best have been losing. Lara next would be devastating for them.

[lookingaround87]

People now dare to fight them, now they are a milion year old

Barthelamy is 31 and Dorticos is 32. Barrera could have fought Bivol 5 years ago and it wouldn't have made any difference. He also ducked Kovalev who is hardly a spring chicken.

[Evander]

Last time I checked Luis Ortiz was involved in the highest profile Heavyweight fight and did good.

[Ilya Muromets]

Actually a good post. Cuba's best have been losing. Lara next would be devastating for them.

Actually all of them are boxers who no longer live in Cuba. Professional boxing is still illegal in Cuba. Bad year for Cuban ex-pat boxers maybe, but not really Cuban boxing.

[Mexi-Box]

Actually a good post. Cuba's best have been losing. Lara next would be devastating for them.

Actually all of them are boxers who no longer live in Cuba. Professional boxing is still illegal in Cuba. Bad year for Cuban ex-pat boxers maybe, but not really Cuban boxing.

They're not really American. It's like some of the Mexican fighters, I think LSC, who is a Mexican. He trains in California, I think, but he's still classified as Mexcian. Same with Abner Mares. Really, it's splitting hairs not calling them Cubans.

[jamamb]

bad year in terms of number lossess for top cubans, although dorticos and ortiz were in great fights with honourable losses and i like them more now

but rigo and barthlemy lost pretty much every round and looked really not good or with much fighting spirit at all.

barrera got dominated and ko'd but i felt he gave a respectable effort, bivol was simply too good for him

also the opposition level was very high for the losing cubans, i mean: loma, wilder, gassiev, bivol, , and then relikh. thats like a p4p top 3 fighter, three powerful beasts, and a pretty solid light welter who imo should be undefeated and had the wba title since the burns fight.

[oogiebe]

Nothing will ever top 1976 for Cuban disappointment.

[Deleted_Scenes]

Good points mentioned above. The Cubans have pretty much fought a murderers row. Dorticos and Ortiz gave very good accounts of themselves too. 2 rare occasions where a fighter's stock rises in defeat.

I don't see Lara losing to Hurd either - too basic. Maybe Charlo, not Hurd.

[Ron C]

It sucks Ortiz started so late. I'm convinced he's in his Mid 40's. Either way, I feel like if he turned pro several years earlier he really could've had a glorious career. He was schooling Wilder before fatigue got the best of him. It looks like Lara is the last one standing. I went to a lot of local boxing matches in south Florida from 2008-2012, Cubans were on all of the cards. And you knew it was gonna be a blowout. Really surprising to see them all get picked off like this

[Best Coast]

Nothing will ever top 1976 for Cuban disappointment.

Great point!! The legendary US team really steamrolled them that year in the Olympics

2012 was not a very good year for them either. Not only was 2012 Olympics their lowest medal haul in boxing since 1968, but a month before the London Games, Teofilo Stevenson died a premature death at age 60. That's phenomenally young, especially for a guy who never fought a round of pro boxing.

[Best Coast]

It sucks Ortiz started so late. I'm convinced he's in his Mid 40's. Either way, I feel like if he turned pro several years earlier he really could've had a glorious career. He was schooling Wilder before fatigue got the best of him. It looks like Lara is the last one standing. I went to a lot of local boxing matches in south Florida from 2008-2012, Cubans were on all of the cards. And you knew it was gonna be a blowout. Really surprising to see them all get picked off like this

You make some good points but your claim that Ortiz is in his mid-40s is ridiculous!! Cuban record-keeping for their amateur boxers is generally meticulous because boxers (& baseball players) are taken from their families at a young age and placed in sports "academies" where they are strictly supervised and groomed for their specific sport.

Ortiz was born in March 1979 and was 19 when he competed in his first Cuban National Championships (not counting Youth or Junior Championships) in January 1999 (losing by stoppage to Felix Savon in his Prelims bout). If your claim of him being in his mid-40s was true, why would they hold him out of the Nationals until he was 25?!?

http://amateur-boxing.strefa.pl/Nationa ... a1999.html

[asdfjkl]

People now dare to fight them, now they are a milion year old

Barthelamy is 31 and Dorticos is 32. Barrera could have fought Bivol 5 years ago and it wouldn't have made any difference. He also ducked Kovalev who is hardly a spring chicken.

I don't know who they are, but Ortiz and Rigo sure would have done a better job 5 years ago.

[lookingaround87]

People now dare to fight them, now they are a milion year old

Barthelamy is 31 and Dorticos is 32. Barrera could have fought Bivol 5 years ago and it wouldn't have made any difference. He also ducked Kovalev who is hardly a spring chicken.

I don't know who they are, but Ortiz and Rigo sure would have done a better job 5 years ago.

You don't know who they are? Read the original post in this thread. And Rigo wouldn't have done anything against Loma at any point in his career.

[asdfjkl]

Barthelamy is 31 and Dorticos is 32. Barrera could have fought Bivol 5 years ago and it wouldn't have made any difference. He also ducked Kovalev who is hardly a spring chicken.

I don't know who they are, but Ortiz and Rigo sure would have done a better job 5 years ago.

You don't know who they are? Read the original post in this thread. And Rigo wouldn't have done anything against Loma at any point in his career.

Lol

[oogiebe]

Nothing will ever top 1976 for Cuban disappointment.

Great point!! The legendary US team really steamrolled them that year in the Olympics

2012 was not a very good year for them either. Not only was 2012 Olympics their lowest medal haul in boxing since 1968, but a month before the London Games, Teofilo Stevenson died a premature death at age 60. That's phenomenally young, especially for a guy who never fought a round of pro boxing.

Thanks Best! Regarding Teofilo, I couldn't believe that lack of coverage (respect) for him when he passed. He was a monster. I was lucky to see live the Bobick massacre a year after Bobick beat him at the pan-am games. Bobick...disappointing.

[danconnollyeire]

Actually a good post. Cuba's best have been losing. Lara next would be devastating for them.

Nah, Cuba's best have been winning medal after medal. Their best rarely turn pro

[DrDuke]

So, now Lara joins the list.

[Ruthless-RKO]

So, now Lara joins the list.

Lara and Dorts did Cuba proud..

[jamamb]

whose the best cuban pro not coming off a loss

[ValMar]

whose the best cuban pro not coming off a loss

I am so sad, because of Cubans............

[Ruthless-RKO]

whose the best cuban pro not coming off a loss

Yuriorkis Gamboa (controversial)

Yordenis Ugas

Mike Perez

Take your pick!

[Thomastearns]

Actually a good post. Cuba's best have been losing. Lara next would be devastating for them.

Nah, Cuba's best have been winning medal after medal. Their best rarely turn pro

The entire landscape of 1970s HW boxing might have been different if Stevenson had turned pro. His style still looks uncannily modern all these decades later.

Good for him that he stuck to his principles, but an enormous missed opportunity for pro boxing.