Cuban boxing know-how on show at Asiad
Cuban boxing know-how on show at Asiad
BANGKOK (Reuters): Their fighters are not here but the soul of Cuba's famed fighters will be present in a host of coaches when the boxing gets underway at the Asian Games on Monday.
The Philippines, Pakistan, Laos, India, Indonesia and host Thailand all have Cuban head coaches for their boxing teams.
There are also a sprinkling of other Cubans as trainers and cornermen in other teams.
Rafael Ramirez, coach of Pakistan since 1993, says the presence of the Cubans throughout Asia has led to a sharp rise in the standard of Asian boxing and made the contests more even than in the past.
"We are spreading our Cuban methods and it is paying off," Ramirez said.
The measures include identifying boxers of the future when they are barely in their teens and uncompromising training regimes that go on non-stop.
"We are very professional about boxing back in Cuba even though we only compete in amateur events like the Olympics," he said while supervising his team during their warm-up schedule at the Muang Thong Thani stadium in Bangkok.
"We start the guys early, from 10 or 11 years of age, and take them through set stages depending on how old they are.
"So when they are old enough for senior competition they have had six or seven years in boxing."
Ramirez comes from Guantanamo, a region of 400,000 famous not only for the Cuban revolution song about it, but also for producing 14 World Champions and nine Olympic Champions.
"We also have beautiful women," he said with a smile.
Ramirez is hoping for at least three medals from his team but he says the competition will be tough.
The flyweight, light fly, bantam and welterweight divisions are all expected to be hotly contested.
The Central Asian Republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, making only their second appearance in the Asian Games after the break up of the communist-era Soviet Union, are fielding strong teams and look set to contest the title for the most golds.
In the last Asian Games in Hiroshima in 1994, the gold medals were evenly split with the Philippines ending on top with three golds from the 12 divisions contested. Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and South Korea took two each.
Host Thailand is confident of bagging a swag of medals and hopes are high that Olympic Champion Somluck Khamsing will be able to defend the featherweight title he won in Hiroshima.
Still recovering from an ankle injury in training, he will have plenty of opposition, including Abdullaev Mahamatkodir of Uzbekistan.
Ramirez believes Thailand will have to fight hard to win the three to five gold medals that have been predicted, because of the overall rise in the standard of Asian boxing.
"Do they think they will be fighting alone?" he asked.