Julio Cesar la Cruz became the IBA Pro World Champion at 92kg at IBA Champions’ Night Havana, defeating Madiyar Saydrakhimov of Uzbekistan in the main event.

Headlining the first professional boxing event in Cuba since the ban on professionalism in the 1960’s, La Cruz overcame a worthy challenger, the 2021 world bronze medallist Saydrakhimov at the Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva, coinciding with International Boxing Day.

It was a rematch of their 2021 Men’s World Boxing Championships semi-final, which La Cruz triumphed unanimously in Belgrade, and he won by the same verdict this time. La Cruz was always going to be evasive, and the Uzbek would have to focus on closing down his opponent and targeting the body to find success, hoping he would slow down in the second half of the bout. Instead, Saydrakhimov’s offense mostly targeted the Cuban’s ever-moving head to little avail. Meanwhile, La Cruz would pick his punches nicely with a high rate of accuracy before going back to his swaggering, care-free stance.

In the late stages, Saydrakhimov chased after the home favourite, but was mostly undone by the evasive work of La Cruz, who had superb upper body movement to dodge the oncoming blows, leaning right back to avoid the hammering hits. It was a story of Saydrakhimov unable to hit La Cruz enough to have any meaningful impact and La Cruz doing what he does best – being frustrating to fight and quick on the reply when it mattered the most, as he ended the 10-round fight the unanimous winner.

Also on the main card, Arlen Lopez made it another victory for Cuba with a complete domination of Luis Antonio Tejeda from the Dominican Republic, winning the IBA Pro World Champion title at 80kg.

Lopez took a lot out of Tejeda in the second round where it seemed the Dominican fighter would be knocked down, but remarkably, he was able to last the three minutes. The punishment would continue into the third round, causing a cut to Tejeda’s face. Lopez gestured to the referee that his opponent should be checked and following a doctor’s inspection, the match was called off, giving the Cuban the technical knockout victory.

Cuban Roniel Iglesias was declared the unanimous victor on home soil against Armenia’s Gurgen Madoyan in the 67kg division. Madoyan egged on his opponent to strike him throughout, trying to lure him to make a mistake and was relatively successful on the body, taking it to the more experienced, two-time Olympic champion Iglesias.

Yet, Iglesias’ quality shone through. His calm demeanour came more into the contest the longer it lasted and was not fazed by the games played by the Armenian, including a moment where Madoyan leaned back against the ropes in a mocking fashion that led to some jeers from the crowd. Playing the perfect antagonist, Madoyan attempted to stay on the level of Iglesias, but was unable to overcome the favourite. He was gracious in defeat despite his antics, as Iglesias was announced as the winner.

Erislandy Alvarez was victorious in the 63.5kg division, defeating Colombia’s Jose Munoz in a bout dominated by the home favourite. Alvarez made it his ambition from the first bell to go for the knockout, immediately cornering Munoz with rapid-fire strikes.

There were several times where a weaker fighter would have succumbed to the offense from the Cuban, but Munoz was remarkably defiant, remaining upright the whole bout. The pair enjoyed some mind games, trying to convince the other to come to them as two tactical approaches clashed, but it was always Alvarez’s match to lose and by the end it never looked in doubt.

Lazaro Alvarez defeated Uzbekistan’s Mujibillo Tursunov from Uzbekistan in another 63.5kg division fight.

The Uzbek was aggressive, making it a fierce match full of action that animated the crowd, however it was Alvarez who was the better of the pair. The highlight came in the first minute of the first round when a left hand was cemented on Tursunov’s face, finding a way through the gloves. While Tursunov was constantly throwing vicious shots, they were not able to connect like the Cuban’s were, who won by unanimous decision.

In a close opening contest, Saidel Horta defeated the visiting Ruslan Belousov of Russia in the 57kg division. A rampant third round was crucial for the Cuban who was efficient in those early stages and despite a strong fifth round from Belousov, he did not do enough to convince the judges.

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