[NYTr] Circles Robinson on Cuba's Non-Deserting Boxers

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Circles Robinson's Blog - Aug 14, 2007
http://circlesonline.blogspot.com/2007/08/cuba-boxing-duo-and-murky-story.html

Cuba Boxing Duo and a Murky Story

By Circles Robinson

Amateur boxing champs Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara had the
rags to riches American dream in their hands. Yet after nearly two
weeks of booze, prostitutes and big buck offers they opted out and
asked to be repatriated to Cuba.

The case, which has made waves in Cuba and in the foreign press, raises
interesting questions about the unscrupulous role of agents operating
in the world of professional sports.

Rigondeaux, 25, a Sydney and Athens Olympic gold medalist, and Lara,
24, a world championship title holder, abandoned Cuba’s boxing team in
the middle of the Rio de Janeiro Pan American Games on July 21.

By August 2, they had repented, asking to go home and accept sanctions
instead of heading to Germany as the property of Arena Box Promotions
for a professional career. They were back in Havana on August 5.

President Fidel Castro has written three articles on the subject (July
27, Aug. 4, 7,) and the boxers were interviewed at length and their
statements published in Cuba’s leading newspaper on August 9. Castro
questioned the ethics of Arena Box Promotions and its owner Ahmet Öner
who appears to have an axe to grind with Cuba.

Öner, a 35-year-old Turkish-born ex-boxer, claims he invested nearly a
half million dollars to capture Lara and Rigondeaux, and then signed
them to a US $680,000 contract to fight professionally in Germany. The
boxers deny having signed any contract.

With Öner’s agents telling them how Arena Box had made rich men of
three Cuban Olympic champs they had bought earlier in the year, (Yan
Barthelemy, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Odlander Solis), many following the
case ask why would Lara and Rigondeaux choose to return home where they
make less that $30 a month?

The timing of the desertion provoked an unusual situation. Cuban
athletes that swallow the bait of foreign agents are never mentioned
again in the Cuban media. In the case of baseball players their career
stats are eliminated from the following years’ Cuban Baseball Almanac.
Boxers drop off the map as well.

Rigondeaux and Lara’s no-show and disqualification by forfeit on July
22 prompted comments from Fidel Castro that mentioned them with first
and last names, something completely out of the ordinary.

DPA news service reported on July 23 that the Brazilian Federal Police
were trying to locate the boxing stars.

DOES EVERYONE HAVE A PRICE?

Most of the capitalist world found Rigondeaux and Lara’s decision to go
home incomprehensible. On most occasions, the talent buyers know it’s
just a matter of price to convince a Third World sports hero or
prospect to abandon his or her country to play in a foreign league or
step up in the ring.

Scores of Cuban baseball players, boxers and other athletes are
continuously hounded with offers of sizable amounts of money, in the
millions for the best, to go professional mostly in the US or Europe. A
small minority accept the bait and some become rich overnight. But the
vast majority say no-thanks, preferring their life in Cuba over the
American dream.

Top athletes live mildly privileged lives in Cuba (a car, better diet,
often improved modest housing) as compensation for their efforts
representing their country. However, the privileges they have do not
set them far apart from the rest of society and would be considered
insignificant in a capitalist consumer society.

Cuba invests heavily in the preparation of their top athletes from a
young age. Three-time Olympic Heavyweight Boxing Champion Teofilo
Stevenson was one. The man who was offered a fortune by Don King and
other promoters to fight Mohammad Ali and other top professional boxers
was one of many Cuban sports glories accompanying the 500 or so Cuban
athletes competing in Rio de Janeiro.

Stevenson, who won gold medals in Munich (1972), Montreal (1976) and
Moscow (1980), told El Pais newspaper on August 9, “It must be very
painful for their families, for a people that have cheered them [Lara
and Rigondeaux], and because of the opportunities they’ve had.”

Stevenson further told El Pais: “When I think today about the million
dollar offers they are insignificant. What is much more important to me
is the affection I receive in Cuba and the millions of revolutionaries
around the globe that are working to make this a better world.”

On its website, Arena Box Promotions owner-CE0 Ahmet Öner says: “You
can only be the best stable if you have the best horses.” He knows that
like horses, once professional boxers have their blinkers put on and
get trapped in the highlife they have them for as long as they like.

Then they are spit out on the street where in most cases they are broke
within a few years no matter how many millions they made in the ring.
Joe Luis, Mike Tyson, Hasim Rahman, Chris Eubank, Scott Harrison and
Riddick Bowe are just a small number of bankrupt examples.

Öner was a boxer himself with a short-lived professional career in
Germany between 1997 and 2002. Somehow he then obtained the backing to
start Arena Box a year ago and shortly after had millions of dollars to
purchase Cuban boxers.

BRAIN DRAIN AND TALENT THEFT

While some Cubans believe the case of Rigondeaux and Lara is nothing
more than two foolish boxers who made a mistake and repented, there are
many aspects that make the situation appear out of the ordinary.

Just five days before the two boxers abandoned their team in Rio, Fidel
Castro published a commentary on July 17 on the effects of brain drain.
It dealt with the issue of the top Latin American professionals being
lured by North American and European corporations and institutions
after receiving an education in their home countries needy of their
services.

Castro quoted a World Bank report: “Brain drain deals a double blow to
weak economies, which not only lose their best human resources and the
money spent training them, but then have to pay an estimated $5.6
billion US a year to employ expatriates.”

On July 26, the Turkish-German owner of Arena Box said that his agents
had signed Rigondeaux and Lara for a half million Euro (US $680,000).
The news traveled the world in the mainstream media as another victory
over Cuba’s socialist system. The media joyfully recalled that Öner had
already purchased three Cuban gold medalists earlier in the year.

On July 27, Fidel expanded the brain drain issue to include talent
theft. “What has been the worst problem for poor countries from a
technological and economic point of view? Brain drain. And from the
patriotic and educational point of view: Talent theft.”

“Cuba has undeniable results and efforts in amateur sports, but suffers
more from the bite of the piranhas than any other country,” said Castro.

Four days later, Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, host of
the Pan American Games (July 14-29), chimed in to Fidel’s concern
lamenting the exodus of young soccer players to European and Asian
sports markets.

THE PARTY ENDS

On August 3 it was reported that Lara and Rigondeaux had been detained
the previous day by police “at the popular Praia Seca beach, in the
small city of Araruama in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

One story from Reuters made it seem like the authorities had been
tipped off to their presence: “According to the police, the boxers
consumption habits and Erislandy’s gold teeth led to distrust among the
locals.”

In an article dated August 4 titled “Politics and Sports”, Fidel Castro
confirmed that the Brazilian Police had the boxers in their custody.
“The boxers told the police that they had made a mistake and regretted
it. They refused to see a German citizen who very promptly took
interest in them, following instructions from a mafia company [Arena
Box Promotions].”

“The news [from Ahmet Öner] stating that the boxers were in Turkey
while immigration matters were being looked after had obviously been
released by the mafia as a smoke screen,” noted Fidel Castro.

Refuting any claims from Öner to the contrary, Fidel added that upon
returning home Rigondeaux and Lara “would not be submitted to any sort
of arrest [...] They will be temporarily transferred to a guest house
and allowed family visits. The press will also be able to contact them
if they so wish. They will be offered decent jobs for the benefit of
sports, given their knowledge and experience.”

In an interview with Cuban TV reporter Julia Osendi on the evening of
their return to Cuba on August 5, Lara said he and Rigondeaux took
advantage of a moment when the two Brazilians assigned to watch over
them were having lunch and told a a couple fishermen to call the Federal
Police, whom they said arrived some 20 minutes later.

“When the police arrived they asked us if we wanted to return to Cuba.
We said yes. Then they asked, ‘Do you know what’s awaiting you in
Cuba?’ and we replied we are willing, we committed a serious
indiscipline and now we have to pay for the indiscipline we committed.”
Rigondeaux said a number of prosecutors were brought in “and they all
told us, 'Don’t go to Cuba, in Cuba heavy punishment is awaiting you.'
But we said we want to return to Cuba.”

Two days after the boxers were home, Fidel Castro responded to the
events with his August 7 article titled “A written record.” After
quoting the press reports on the events leading up to Rigondeaux and
Lara’s detention and subsequent return to Cuba, Fidel wrote that he
thought it was fair to give the boxers a chance to tell their side of
what happened to the public.

“Julia Osendi, a television reporter who was well informed about the
Pan American Games held in Rio, arranged a meeting with them and made
efforts to persuade them to speak with absolute frankness.”

Fidel then warned in the same article that Cuba may not attend an
upcoming Olympic qualifying boxing tournament in Chicago. “Just picture
the mafia sharks lurking about in search of fresh talent,” he said.

On August 9 Granma newspaper published the text of Osendi’s interview
with the two boxers. Although it was not stated, the format led many
readers to the conclusion that the boxers were interviewed separately
and did not fully tell what happened.

Lara claimed that a Cuban named Alexis and an unnamed German, both with
press credentials, had by chance intercepted them outside the villa
when they left to go shopping on the evening of July 21, and swept them
away to bars and cabarets. There they claim they were softened up with
booze, food and women and were taken to a beach on an island where the
agents offered them a contract, which they say they didn’t sign.

The boxers told Osendi that once they had eaten they went beyond the
point of no return and would never make the following day’s weigh in.
Knowing they would be sanctioned they say they feared returning to the
Pan Am Games village. So instead, they decided to continue the party
which they did for nearly two weeks.

The boxers said they were taken from hotel to hotel accompanied by
prostitutes and that the German and Cuban got tired of their refusing
to sign a contract and left them in the hands of two Brazilians.

PENDING QUESTIONS

Now, over three weeks since the boxers began their odyssey, there are
still many unanswered questions about what really happened:

Did Rigondeaux and Lara have previous contact with Öner’s agents before
the night of their disappearing act?

Considering the tight security, how did the boxers leave the Pan
American Athletes Village?

Could Rigondeaux and Lara have been so naive about the boxing mafia
business practices to put themselves in the hands of two people they
didn’t know? Hadn’t they traveled abroad on numerous occasions and were
always counseled on the scenarios that occur to Cuban athletes
competing in other countries?

Why does Arena Box Promotions appear to have a vendetta against the
Cuban revolution and Fidel Castro? Did Arena Box Promotions really lose
a half million dollars in failing to capture their prey? Do they
receive secret funds for their talent theft against Cuba?

Who actually called the Police, the fishermen at the request of the
boxers, the hotel personnel or suspicious locals?

Why were some Brazilian authorities supposedly searching for the Cubans
and then when they were taken into custody others tried hard to
convince them not to return to Cuba?