World Series of Boxing (WSB) is delighted to announce that Cuba has decided to join the competition as of its fourth season, due to start in November 2013.
Set up by the Cuban Boxing Federation and fully supported by the National Sports Authorities, the new WSB Franchise will comprise the country’s 20 best boxers and main members of the National Pre-selection Squad, including Olympic, World and Pan-American Champions.
Two weeks away from the highly anticipated 2012/2013 WSB Team Finals between the Ukraine Otamans and Astana Arlans Kazakhstan in the 9,000-seater Saryarka Velodrome of Astana, Cuba’s confirmation that it will participate in next year’s competition means that the highest possible standards have been set for Season IV.
“We are extremely pleased to welcome Cuba to World Series of Boxing”, stated Dr Ching-Kuo Wu, AIBA President and WSB Board Chairman. “With a total of 116 World medals and 67 Olympic ones, Cuban boxers have always lived at the pinnacle of our sport. Following the USA, Mexico, Germany, Great Britain, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and now Cuba, the competition is present in all of the main boxing nations in the World. We are convinced that this new Franchise will bring WSB to an even higher level.”
“It is our duty to help our athletes develop their careers as far as possible”, said Alberto Puig de la Barca, President of the Cuban Boxing Federation. “Our best boxers will compete in WSB over seven months against the world’s cream of the crop. This will offer them the chance to get a taste of the styles of other world class athletes and thus be better prepared to face them in the Olympic Games, Pan-American, Central American and World Championships.
“We are pleased to join. We are satisfied with the organization and with the humanist principles of protecting the boxers that have been developed by WSB. For all of these reasons, we are willing to contribute to the quality of the competition.”
