Why is Boxing illegal in Cuba?

Boxing isn not illegal in Cuba, professional boxing is.

Boxing takes place in Cuba, in a very corner, at numerous gyms in every neighborhood and when the Olympics arrive, the whole country tunes in to watch their fighters fight for gold.

Cuba is the most succesfull country in ametuer boxing history.

But in order to fight professional, their fighters have to defect illegally, through boat smugglers in order to do so.

Except Guillermo Rigondeaux, none of the truly considered great Cuban fighters have ever defected.

 

Private enterprise and Communism do not trend well together.

 

I nut-hug the Eastern European countries but this is true. What makes their success even more impressive is that Cuba only has like 22 million people. Not much bigger than Uacekistan.

I am also fairly certian the TS was referring to professional boxing...

 

damn imagine the kind of dominance they could have if more of the truly great Cubans went pro

 

Easy bro, Cubas population is just a little over 11M people, which makes you point even more impressive.

 

Well, its illegal because Fidel banned it in 1962 after taking power back in 1959. He eliminated all american companies from Cuba, removed the Mafia that was located there, and with that, removed pro boxing which and gambling which were all controlled by the mafia.

 

Thanks for the correction. I could have sworn I read it was around 20-22 million. I will take you word for it because I know 10 million Cuban amateurs did not recently defect.

 

Teofilo Stevenson
Felix Savon
Roberto Balado
Mario Kindelan
Pablo Romero
Hector Vinent
Ariel Hernández

Just to name a few.

 

The revolution did a lot of good for Cuba considering the stark inequality beforehand, and is something of a success story of a Latin American country that resisted US imperialism. What that country could be without the embargo is beyond my imagination.

Politics aside:

 

In terms of profesional boxing, there is no doubt that Kid Gavilan, Kid Chocolate and José Nápoles are probably the greatest Cuban fighters of all time.