The Cuban Olympic Boxing Champion abandons his team in Mexico



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The National Sports Institute of Cuba stated on its website that Ramirez, 24, who had won gold bantam in 2016 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the gold of mid-flyweight in London, "turned his back" to his teammates. "Attitudes like this are far from our values ​​and the discipline that characterizes our sport."

Ramirez's immediate home was unknown.

The Caribbean island nation is proud of its weight in world sports. athletes from an early age under a soviet style system instituted after the leftist revolution of 1959.

With a population of 11 million, Cuba won 220 Olympic medals, of which 77 were won. gold – more than any other country in Latin America. He has won the most boxing Olympic gold medals from all over the world.

But Cuban athletes remain poorly paid amateurs and many flaws in the hope of becoming professional and obtaining multi-million dollar contracts, often The United States, where Cubans still receive special treatment for immigration, heading to the former cold war of Cuba

In March, Joahnys Argilagos, 21, abandoned the team at a tournament in the United States. Mexico. He has tried to counter the lure of big money by instilling in his athletes a strong sense of patriotism and offering financial rewards to those returning from international competitions.

But the defections continued. Guillermo Rigondeaux, Erislandy Lara and Luis Ortiz are among the Cuban boxing champions who have defected professionally.

Cuba's most popular sport – baseball – also suffered many defections that are partly responsible for its shift to fourth place According to the World Baseball Softball Confederation, some of the players who left Cuba to play Major League Baseball in the United States are Jose Abreu with the Chicago White Sox, Aroldis Chapman the New York Yankees, Yoenis Cespedes for the New York Mets

(Report by Nelson Acosta, written by Sarah Marsh, edited by G Crosse )

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