By Tom David Drury: It is widely known that Cubans are obsessed with amateur boxing, and for many years wiped the floor with all-comers (and especially the U.S) at successive Olympic games. But apart from the great Teofilo Stevenson (probably the best boxer to never turn Professional ) and Felix Savon, both of whom won three successive Olympic heavyweight gold’s, I’d be surprised if any of us have any real knowledge of Cuban fighting history.
I’ve just finished reading John Duncans (in the red corner: A journey through Cuban boxing) but was little the wiser after 6-7 hundred pages, I then watched Andrew Lang’s award-winning documentary (Sons of Cuba) and my eyes were well and truly opened, The film shows fighter’s aged between 10-11 been woken at 4am for training, while the coach barks “Comrade athletes-are you ready to start training?…Victory is a duty defeat cannot be justified!” these scenes come across as unsettling and showing a national boxing machine, but its not like that at all.
During the 90s, there was virtually no food available in Cuba. The crumbling wreck of Havana itself play’s a large role in the film, which exposes the poverty and grimness of the surroundings (a gym in which the young fighters use hanging tyres for punchbags).
During the making of the film Fidel Castro was nearing his 80th birthday and growing progressively sicker until eventually he had to pass the reigns of power over to his brother Raul on national television, during that time many Cubans wondered whether the Americans would take advantage of this time of national weakness in order to invade. On the back of these thoughts devastatingly 3 of Cuba’s reigning Olympic boxing champions defect at once and turn professional. Sons of Cuba is a fabulous insight into the history of Cuban boxing and might be just what you need to counteract the recessionary gloom.
I have always been a believer that a man fighting for bread will overcome a man fighting for status, fame, Andrew Lang’s
documentary gives overwhelming evidence that opinion is true.
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