Cuban boxing: Arena's fantastic four ~ Solis and Lara win by KO

After few weeks of waiting, finally the news is here: Lara is in Germany and signed with Arena Box-Promotion.

I know there's a unanimus hate here towards Ahmet Öner, but one thing is for sure: the management and the work so far he put into the 3 olympic champs, Gamboa, Solis and Barthelemy, is perfect... it's not only the VISA, citizenship, flat, good training facility, good opponents, titles, and rankings they've recieved, but also they're not getting ripped off... so, I think Lara joining them is a great news... together with Gary Shaw, now Arena's Cubans can make noise both in Europe and America... I only hope they'll keep up with the good promotional work and the Cubans will keep up winning! Great and exciting TALENTS we are talking about...


Lara will be very good at the pros. Here's his amateur record:

http://www.geocities.com/pedrinet/lara.html





The press release:

12.06.08 - He’s here! Yesterday ARENA-CEO Ahmet Öner welcomed Erislandy Lara in Hamburg. The 2005 world amateur champion from Cuba joined his fellow countrymen Odlanier Solis, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Yan Barthelemy in signing with ARENA Box-Promotion..

Lara had tried to defect from Cuba along with two-times Olympic gold medallist Gulliermo Rigondeaux one year ago but was arrested in Brazil and sent back to Havanna. Now he finally arrived in Hamburg after leaving Cuba on a speed boat to Mexico were he received a provisional passport on Tuesday.

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“It feels great to be in Germany”, states Lara. “I don’t want to talk about the details of my escape. I am just glad to be here and I am looking forward to turning professional and becoming champion of the world.”

“It is better not to talk about the defection itself”, adds Ahmet Öner. “We don’t want to endanger anybody. Unfortunately the communist regime in Cuba still puts a lot of pressure to different people. It’s about time that things change in Cuba and that they finally accept and respect Human rights.”

Former welterweight champion Lara will most probably compete in the middleweight division. “This is one of the most exciting and most lucrative divisions in the world”, explains Öner. “I am sure that Lara will be able to compete with the best in the world very soon. He’s an outstanding talent like Gamboa and Solis.”

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The 25-year-old will give his pro-debut on July 4th in Istanbul on the undercard of the European heavyweight championship between Sinan Samil Sam and Paolo Vidoz and the long estimated clash between Odlanier Solis and Francois Botha.

 

Solis' US visa claims were denied so far, but Gamboa and Barthelemy are living in Miami already... but I don't know whether it's good or bad... there were rumors before the Jimenez fight how the local Cuban community affected Gamboa's focus... and losing focus is the biggest threat for a pro boxer, there are several Cuban examples (Juan Carlos Gomez, Casamayor), so for the training part at least, IMO they should be far away from the strong and live Miami Cuban community... Germany, other part of the US, it doesn't matter... As long as the focus and dedication is there, all 4 Arena Cubans will be world champions... But it's a tough job to keep them focused...

 

If Lara escaped to Mexico by himself and started to make phonecalls to start his own business, he would've got arrested and brought back to Cuba. How do you expect an illegal emigrant to get a VISA, a citizenship, a flat and money to get started on his own if until he gets a citizenship and a VISA to travel, he can be arrested? And make no mistake, it's not a poor Cuban sailing on the boat to Maimi to a better life even without a US citizenship... it's a well-known athlete and the Cuban government is after him. He just can't walk into an office to say that 'hi I'm Erislandy Lara, give me citizenship', because he ends up on a boat heading back to his home country.

SOMEONE has to put money and paperwork in him to get started. But the Shaws are not interested in this, they are only interested in the fighters who already started their new life with the papers in their pocket. But if they still decide to leave Arena/Shaw after the contract expires, they're free to go - after all, it's not Cuba but the US and Germany...