Olympic and triple world fighter Andy Cruz was arrested in Cuba, the island’s national fighting federation said on Tuesday, accusing him of fighting “serious discipline.”
The Cuban Boxing Federation (FCB) issued a statement on the site of Cuba’s INDER Sports Institute, saying “athlete Andy Cruz Gomez has been informed” of the attempt to illegally leave the country.
But FCB is nothing more than an attempt to escape, and no runner up when talking about Cruz.
Cruz, who won gold at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, is considered by many experts to be the best Cuban boxer of his generation.
He faces a temporary or permanent suspension from Cuban over the rushing incident.
The FCB said the case was “serious disorder” that would generate “due assessments” that were soon to be publicized.
Cruz declined to the national championship last week, nor did he engage in any training camp.
The Oncuba site said two sources close to the boxer requested that he had come off the front, not specifying where he was from.
FCB said Cruz was “a lack of obvious motivation” after being excluded from the Cuban professional team’s trip to Mexico to attend the boxing match.
Boxing is a source of national pride for Cuba, which has won 41 Olympic titles and 80 crowns in the world’s nominally amateur version of the sport, and is now officially known as Olympic boxing styles.
Nothing is unusual about Cuban athletes trying to escape from their homeland, as Cuba’s sports players have long been embarrassed not to become professional, to compel them to compete for national glory rather than for personal prizes.
But Cuba’s professional smile slowly opened.
In April, the Communist authorities finally allowed the boxer to take part in professional boxing competitions, leading to a team against Mexico that defeated the Cubans 6-0 with five knockouts, even without Cruz.
Other sports like baseball have also recently embraced limited professionalism as recently as last month Cuban authorities agreed to an international players organization, WBSC, to send Cuban baseballers their contracts with foreign clubs to manage the professional leagues.
Also in recent months wrestler Ismael Borrero, Olympic champion in Rio 2016, and canoeist Fernando Dayan Jorge, Olympic champion in Tokyo, both escaped the country.
Cuba is suffering its worst recession in three decades, partly provoked by a coronary pandemic and ramping up against US sanctions under former President Donald Trump, which led to mass migration.
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