Three Cubans fight for other countries in European Boxing Championship

May 29, 2022

Three boxers from the Cuban boxing school are competing for other countries in the European Elite Men's Boxing Championship, including two Olympic youth champions and one well-known fighter who is already a world medalist among seniors with his current country.

Enmanuel Reyes, for Spain in the 92-kilogram division, as well as two for Bulgaria—Javier Ibáñez in the 57-kilogram division and Yordan Alain Hernández in +92—are the boxers trained on the island who presented themselves at this event held in Yerevan, Armenia.

In the case of Ibáñez, he received a bye in the first round, after which he will fight on May 27 in his first presentation, in a weight division that called up about 13 boxers.

Meanwhile, his teammate Hernández was already defeated in his first fight over 92 kilograms, when he fell to Moldovan Alexei Zavatin by a split decision of 3-2.

Both Ibáñez and Hernández—both born in 1996 in Matanzas—left Cuba with a promising record, as they were junior world champions in 2014 in Bulgaria and later crowned Olympic youth champions in Nanjing, China.

As indicated in a report by Miguel Hernández, "already in 2017, Ibáñez and Hernández were called to Cuba's elite squad in the featherweight (57kg) and superheavyweight (+91) divisions and were selected for the Olympic pre-selection that, under the name of Domadores, represented Cuba in the VII AIBA World Series of Boxing, where they faced the powerhouses of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, among others, and participated in other important European tours."

Javier attended the past senior world championship in 2021, in which he finished in fifth place, in a tournament in which, for Cuba, Osvel Caballero took the bronze medal.

In the case of Enmanuel Reyes, his name is more familiar to Caribbean boxing fans because of the "rivalry" with Julio César La Cruz, which was forged in the past Olympic Games, when the latter defeated him.

Later, Reyes competed in the world championship won by La Cruz and placed third, thus taking the second medal in Spain's history at World Championships.

In this European boxing championship, Enmanuel made his debut with a victory in his first presentation on May 26 in Yerevan, with a win over Bulgarian Dmitrov Pantaleev in the 92-kilogram division.