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.