Arjan Iseni, from Staten Island, New York, went up to the ring in Guayaquil, Ecuador to compete for a spot in the final of the Pan American Championship, but did not find his Cuban rival in the opposite corner.
Iseni became the last of six Americans to advance to gold medal discussion in the men’s section of the continental tournament in Ecuador at 86kg, while his suspected opponent, Herich Ruiz, was unaccounted for.
Ruiz was the main figure in the expedition that arrived from Havana, with his bronze medal, in the last World Championship of the International Boxing Association (former AIBA).
But after the weigh-in, on the eve of the second semifinal in the Ecuadorian coliseum, Ruiz disappeared.
As a rule, “disappearances” in Cuban sports delegations abroad are synonymous with desertion.
After a reasonable wait, and with the evidence on the table, the Cuban Boxing Federation (FCB) confirmed the escape of the boxer from the Isle of Youth, 60 km south of Cuba, and 142 km from Havana.
Ruiz “turns his back on the commitment assumed for this competition and the plans that involved him,” the FCB statement said.
This was the second Cuban defection with a view to this continental competition that celebrates the final this Friday.
Ten days ago, when the Cuban team of seven boxers, on its way to the Pan American Championship in Guayaquil, made a stopover in Panama, another competitor Kevin Brown, 28, “got lost” at the Panama City airport.
The official site of the Cuban Institute of Sports criticized Brown’s escape which he described as “a disloyal attack on the commitment assumed with the team.”
Brown is a native of the province of Camaguey and won the 2012 junior world champion title. He has had close fights against the Cuban Olympic champions Andy Cruz and Roniel Iglesias.
According to comments on social media, both Ruiz and Brown could soon appear in the United States to start a professional career, along with other former Cuban national team member, several of them Olympic and world medalists, who have decided to leave the island in the last 15 years.
Despite ignoring women’s boxing, Cuba led the medal table in the Tokyo Olympics with four gold medals, and five overall. Three months later they also topped the medal table at the World Championships in Belgrade with three gold medals and two bronze.
In Guayaquil, they had five men entered, with four of them fighting in a gold medal bout.
The Pan American Championship in Ecuador served as qualifier of sorts for the Central American and Caribbean Games tournament in San Salvador, El Salvador in June 2023. After that they will certainly turn their attention to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
In an attempt to mitigate desertions, especially towards gyms in Miami and Las Vegas, where former coaches of the Cuban Olympic team live and train, the FCB has announced a rapprochement with professional organizations in search of a formula favoring an economic benefit for boxers, while staying in Cuba.
The flight of talent, not only in boxing and baseball, has the country increasingly on edge as the Paris 2024 Games are just over two years away.
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