Cuban boxers will be able to participate in professional competitions for the first time since 1962, announced the president of the Cuban Boxing Federation Alberto Puig. ” For three and a half years we have been working on a contract that really corresponds to the philosophy of Cuban sport, with regard to the insertion of our boxers in professional boxing. he told state television. The federation has therefore signed a “representation contract” with a Mexican company, Golden Ring, with the first fights scheduled for May in Mexico. In the wake of the revolution led by Fidel Castro, Cuba had abolished professional sport in 1962 before making a timid return to it, for certain sports such as baseball, volleyball and basketball, in 2013. Boxing had was able to start competitions at the semi-professional level in 2014, via the local team of “Tamers of Cuba” which participates in the World Series of Boxing (WSB). She has won three of the five editions she has competed in, the last of which was in 2018. The announcement comes as boxing’s future at the Olympics appears to be up in the air, with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach announcing in December that this historic sport could be absent from the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, after numerous arbitration scandals.