Julio César la Cruz goes for his second Olympic gold with 10 kg more

July 21, 2021

Watching Julio César la Cruz fight causes an incredible kind of hypnosis. At one moment he's in a corner, lowers his guard, moves his feet quickly and immediately reappears in another part of the ring. A moment later his fists come from a different spot, he dodges his opponent, moves his torso, challenges him, enters like lightning and suddenly vanishes again. It's a controversial style, but effective. "The Shadow" is a four-time world champion and Olympic titleholder.

He's achieved all this in the last decade, a period during which he also enjoyed gold medals at continental competitions and in which he proudly displays the leadership of the powerful Cuban boxing squad. He is the flagship and Julio César is its captain.

Nevertheless, la Cruz has a challenge ahead: to prove that in the 91 kg division, the weight class he moved up to just over a year ago, he can match all the successes obtained in his former 81 kg weight. For him it doesn't seem to be a problem.

"I needed to move up in weight class, because in the previous one I had a lot of difficulty maintaining weight. I'm about to turn 32 years old and my body is no longer the same. Before I had to lose 13 kilos to be able to compete, but now I can eat better, train more calmly and incorporate a stronger preparation system with strength exercises. I've adapted well to the change and the postponement of the games helped me," he assures with that rough voice that is unmistakable to boxing followers.

It sounds easy, but sustaining a fighting system based on leg speed and constant evasion with ten additional kilograms is not easy. Still, during the last preparation sparring session of the Cuban squad against Mexican professional boxers, Julio César looked like the same impressive boxer who five years ago reached the top of the Olympic podium.

"I have a great work team to aspire to my second Olympic title. I only think about preparing myself and going out to seek victory, because I'm in a position to win another Olympic title. Tokyo will have the final word," he says just before assuming his role as captain and speaking for the rest of his teammates.

For the captain of the squad, Cuban boxing has the conditions to aspire to more than two gold medals. Achieving this would mean at least tying the three titles from Rio 2016, a very beneficial performance for Cuba's aspirations to finish among the top 20 in the medal count. According to Julio César, the preparation of the seven Cubans for Tokyo 2020 is one of the weapons to achieve it.

"Since August 31, 2020 we have been engaged in collective training that has benefited us greatly, and although we had almost no sparring sessions due to the pandemic, we are in optimal form. We want the greatest number of medals possible to bring joy to our people in the midst of so many things experienced due to COVID-19."

Julio speaks and optimism fills him. It is perhaps one of his strategies to drive his teammates, to fill them with that champion spirit that reminds us of master Alcides Sagarra and from which "the captain" prefers not to distance himself.

"I've been in sports for 25 years and I've never stopped training. I don't get tired and I always prepare myself for the gold medal. It takes a lot of concentration, discipline, willpower and love for what you do, but I love boxing. Even if I fought at 300 kilograms, I would always aspire to the title. To be a champion you can't lose, so every fight is like a title fight."

In his new division, Julio César la Cruz will encounter high-level rivals, led by Russian Muslim Gadzhimagomedov, the current world champion, as well as other Olympic and world medalists such as Kazakh Vasili Levit, Ecuadorian Julio Castillo, and Uzbek Sanjar Tursunov.

They all boast a respectable record, and among them the fighting style of a man who knows how much responsibility each of his punches carries will try to slip in.

Nevertheless, "the Shadow" prefers to always speak positively. In fact, accustomed to victories and not giving up without trying, he confirms a just and well-deserved desire: "if I achieve the gold medal here," he says, "I would like to be Cuba's flag bearer at Paris 2024." Cuba awaits him there to thrill to his punches and marvel at his style.