Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo
Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo (b. August 14, 1988) is a Cuban amateur boxer best known for winning the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Iglesias also won a bronze medal at the Olympics in 2008. In 2009 Iglesias won the World amateur Championships in the Light welterweight class and he is also a 2011 Pan American Games gold medalist.
Amateur career
In 2005 he won the national (senior) flyweight title as a 16-year old when Olympic champion Yuriorkis Gamboa was out injured, he beat future two-time champ Yoandri Salinas and Karel Luis in the final, the more experienced Andry Laffita who had competed at Light flyweight was sent to the world championships, however.
In 2006 he competed in January at the national (senior) championships at bantamweight and lost in the semifinal to Idel Torriente, in September he had put on 6 more kilograms and won his world title at lightweight in Agadir, Morocco. In the quarterfinals he beat Everton Lopes, in the final Kazakh boxer Azamat Smagulov.
In 2007 he lost at the national senior championships to world champ Yordenis Ugas at lightweight.
In 2008 he won the junior welter national senior championship, when he beat Richard Poll 12:9 in the final and was sent to the Olympic qualifier in Trinidad where he beat another teenager in Javier Molina in the semifinal to qualify for the Olympics.
Olympic results
2008 (as a Light welterweight)
- Defeated Mahaman Smaila (Cameroon) 15-1
- Defeated Driss Moussaid (Morocco) 15-4
- Defeated Gennady Kovalev (Russia) 5-2
- Lost to Manus Boonjumnong (Thailand) 5-10
2012 (as a Light welterweight)
- Defeated Cesar Villarraga (Colombia) 20-9
- Defeated Everton Lopes (Brazil) 18-15
- Defeated Uktamjon Rahmonov (Uzbekistan) 21-15
- Defeated Vincenzo Mangiacapre (Italy) 15-8
- Defeated Denis Berinchik (Ukraine) 22-15
2016 (as a Welterweight)
- 1st round bye
- Defeated Vladimir Margaryan (Armenia) TKO-Injury 1
- Lost to Shakhram Giyasov (Uzbekistan) 0-3
World Amateur Championships
2009 Gold medalist in Milan, Italy (as a Light welterweight)
- 1st round bye
- Defeated Brice Bassok (Burkina Faso) 14-0
- Defeated Madadi Nagzibekov (Tajikistan) 15-1
- Defeated Scott Cardle (England) RSCI 3
- Defeated Uranchimegiin Mönkh-Erdene (Mongolia) 6-4
- Defeated Frankie Gomez (United States) 8-2
2011 in Baku, Azerbaijan (as a Light welterweight)
- 1st round bye
- Lost to Denis Berinchik (Ukraine) 19-19+
2015 in Doha, Qatar (as a Welterweight)
- 1st round bye
- Defeated Yaroslav Samofalov (Ukraine) 3-0
- Lost to Parviz Bagirov (Azerbaijan) 1-2