When talking about a boxer out of the league, an extra class who before entering the ring was practically a sure winner, one of the first that comes to mind isMario Kindelan, elegant, intelligent, puncher with both hands, with magnificent movements in the ring, double Olympic and triple world champion, genuine exponent of the Cuban Boxing School.
After always declaring himself afervent follower of revolutionary ideas, after giving up many proposals to enter professional boxing, has had to move to another country to train athletes from that nation in pursuit of an improvement that was not achieved in his own country... a sad reality but one that has become everyday!
I am currently in Bahrain, an emirate on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula located in the Persian Gulf. This is crazy, something I couldn't dream of: there are 36 islands linked by monumental roads and huge bridges.
I am a coach of the Grappling Club and in the short time I have been here I have already collected, purchased with my salary, 20 pairs of gloves to send them to the EIDE in Holguín. They took away my 7,400 pesos as an Olympic champion, but I don't forget my people.
How do you get to Bahrain, through Cubadeportes or through a free contract?
Cubasports? Hahaha. Do not make me laugh. It turns out that the boxing federations of this country had repeatedly contacted INDER directors to hire me and both in Holguín and Havana they assured that I was not available, that if they wanted they would send another coach.
But the answer was always the same: they wanted me, no one else. Julita, can you imagine that those same leaders told me that I did not have the necessary conditions to work in the national team or in the national ESPA?
And it is no secret that our sports leaders add and remove, not because of the quality of the coach but for their own convenience. Many, many were not athletes.
Our sports leaders add and remove, not because of the quality of the coach but for their own convenience.
Currently there are practically no Olympic champions as technicians in high performance. Because? Because bosses who never played sports, what are they going to say to an Olympic monarch, to a world title holder? They try to look for people who submit to them, not who dominate their profession, that's the truth!
And how do they finally contact you?
Girl…by the magic of the internet! Because of a message that came to me on Facebook in which they showed interest in me training a group of boxers. They explained the conditions to me and of course I accepted. After two months it was ready and when I got here I found out that they had shown interest in my work for a long time, but that they were calling INDER.
Thank God there is the internet and they were able to contact me personally. It seems that the Cuban managers wanted Mario Kindelán to die under a bridge in the street, without any possibility of living as a human being.
For the two-time Olympic champion Mario Kindelán, what did his coach Julián Ricardo González Cedeño represent?
For my sporting life, Cedeño represents everything. Since I joined the national team in 1990 until the last day of my career, year 2004, after being crowned in the Athens Olympic Games.
Cedeño was a father to me; We were friends, brothers, I had all the knowledge, all the experience to be head of the technical group but the war existed. They didn't want anyone who had belonged to Professor Alcides' team and so they looked for technicians who had nothing to do with that staff. Big mistake! If you ask me, I still don't really know what happened.
Without mentioning names, I can say that when something like this happens it is that one of that wonderful group, which the founder of the Cuban Boxing School, Professor Alcides Sagarra, led for so many decades, acted like Judas Iscariot. I don't know why there always has to be a traitor but there was one here.
Maybe yes, there are signs but it is better not to talk about that.
Precisely, what can you tell me about Alcides?
What can we tell you about the teacher who was forced to leave school early? Alcides could have brought at least 10 more years of his wisdom to our boxing... and be careful.
But also, let's assume that he was sick as they claimed. Why exclude it suddenly? They took his life completely; His life was boxing and it was taken from him.
Many, many people who are directing boxing today (I personally saw them, I have experiences, anecdotes that show them apparently respecting it) took advantage of vile things to throw it aside. Take a look at the current direction of Cuban boxing and you will see some names.
What happened to the famous rematch fight with the British Amir Khan, whom you defeated in the final in Athens 2004?
Another example that athletes are mere instruments, puppets that try to move without taking into account the human being. I returned from Athens and was inactive for eight months, without training. Then they told me that Cuba had accepted a fight between the Englishman and me, can you imagine? I hadn't seen any activity for eight months, I hadn't entered a ring, I hadn't done a weight, in fact I hadn't gone to Havana. And of course my answer was a resounding no.
When I arrived at INDER they explained to me that money had already been collected, that this fight was not going to be publicized in the country, that it was a fight to try to unite relations between Great Britain and Cuba, tremendous pain! And of course, I didn't accept.
American's promoter, Frank Warren, had paid a quarter of a million dollars for that fight to the INDER organization; Of course I didn't know until that moment. I mean, they never counted on me: a puppet, right? Incredible for an athlete like me, always faithful, what was the point? They were going to endorse the money, just like that, without me knowing anything.
In the history of Cuban boxing after 1959, something like this had never been allowed; Even Teófilo's much-publicized fight with Muhammad Ali never happened in the end. And they wanted me to face a magnificent boxer who had been preparing for the rematch, who had already entered professionalism... without me knowing anything and without having the slightest preparation!
They really have done a few Kinde to you.
And you say it! Can we say what happened with our interview last December?
Of course. I don't have any problem with that. I spoke to you to talk about your life as a boxer, your successes and what you were doing at that time, December 2022, and you gladly agreed. And later, you wrote to me telling me that if I knew who Roberto Ramírez was, that you had received a threat from him. Of course I remember it, why?
To clarify, I was answering your questionnaire when Carlos, head of sports activities in Holguín, arrived to congratulate me on the new year and found out that I was answering an interview for you.CyberCuba.
Not an hour had passed when he returned with the message from that Roberto that I don't know who he is, that I couldn't give any interview if I didn't consult with him, that the “things” that had me in mind for 2023 (possibly a car) were going away. They could disappear completely.
Exact. And then I told you: "another day we will do the Kinde interview; there is more time than life. Take advantage of what they are going to give you, even if it is the product of extortion as vile as this."
That's how it was, there is more time than life Julita. And look at me now in this dreamland answering your questions. The thing is that, if you analyze, you have to take off your mask and it is known that those who run our country, the president, the vice president, do not know or do not want to know what is being done with sport.
Those who run our country, the president, the vice president, do not know or do not want to know what is being done with sport.
The only justification given for the decline of our sport is that there are coaches here and there. And why are they leaving? To improve, yes, but fundamentally because those who are directing know nothing about sport, those who did not even give Physical Education in their lives.
How many Olympic champions does Cuba have? In boxing, for example, there has always been an image that boxers are brutes, illiterate; However, there are masters of science, doctors, graduates. Who directs, any Olympic champion?
You are very right and, by the way, in relation to boxing, is the Cuban fist sport in good health today?
Respecting our fighters, from Chocolatico Pérez to the boys who enter the ring these days representing the Cuban School, Cuban boxing is not good.
How is it that since 1968, Mexico 68, we have linked incredible triumphs in World Championships, Olympic Games, Pan American Games and now, true predictions of gold medalists cannot be given?
In Tokyo 2020, without taking credit away from the boys, we cannot make a true analysis if we take into account the impact of COVID in many countries. That was an Olympics that, yes, we are grateful to the Japanese, but we cannot measure anything by it. The pandemic, unfortunately, was the great champion and Tokyo is not a meter, neither for us, nor for others.
So, once the planet has recovered from COVID, what have been the merits of our fighters? Do you think there is no concern for the Central American and Caribbean Games? If Cuba was easily first place in the boxing contest; that was not discussed.
And I wonder if we now have more graduates, more master's degrees, more doctors in science, why can't we guarantee that we are going to win the Central American Championships? Why doesn't the Cuban government just realize that what those who run Cuban sports do is steal from the athletes, the coaches, the State?
Why doesn't the Cuban government just realize that what those who run Cuban sports do is steal from the athletes, the coaches, the State?
The Cuban Boxing School, I am ashamed to say, is no longer the Cuban Boxing School: there is no quality, there is no sure champion. The thought is to see who gets the medal, who reaches the final, how many we can achieve.
Since before me, on the American continent the only ones who could resist us were the American boxers, who had a system with an eye toward professionalism. And due to the political "goings-on" falling before them could mean the loss of the national team. I don't know I could lose to Nicaragua, nor Venezuela, nor Aruba. What is that? That was disrespectful.
Now they go to the Central Americans and we lose to Brazil, Costa Rica or Suriname but nothing happens, they are only after the money, what they can win.
After you retired, have you been assisted by Cuban boxing?
I retired in 2004. Look, the smallest thing. The Cuban School has given modules, to give you an example, and after 16 years the Boxing Federation sent me some sports clothing and eight months ago I received a pair of tennis shoes. Look carefully, after 16 years, a module and eight months ago, some tennis shoes. Draw your conclusions Julita.
Also due to COVID they sent us another module but we had to come to Cerro Pelado to sign but with what money, with what ticket would I travel to Havana? You know that the Olympic gold medalists were given 300 CUC but now it is 7,400 pesos, something embarrassing! The least they could have done is give us 300 MLC but no. We Cuban Olympic champions are worth 7,400 pesos and that was not enough for me to get to Havana in a car, since there were no buses during COVID.
They never authorized the director of INDER in Holguín, nor the official who came and went to Havana. But I go further: during the visits of the leaders from Havana to Holguín, when I made my proposal they told me: “yes, here is the module but you have to come and get it.” What are we talking about?
Just two months ago, the person responsible for Holguín's athlete care went to Havana with a power of attorney signed by me and, oh surprise! My module was no longer in the warehouse and the exit papers of who it had been delivered to did not appear. What does that mean Julita? A constant theft! We do not receive attention from anything, no one protects us.
In my country we lack the slightest bit of support from anyone or anything. The Olympic, world, and continental champions who have given life to Cuba and its sport are totally unprotected. Nobody attends to us. Do you know what it's like to take away those 300 CUC that was the only benefit we had? The only! What is 7,400 pesos? It's a mockery.
In my country we lack the slightest support from anyone or anything. The Olympic, world, and continental champions who have given life to Cuba and its sport are totally unprotected. Nobody attends to us
Mario Kindelán has not entered a store in his country for four years. A double Olympic champion, tri-world champion, double holder of the World Cup and the Pan American Games, best amateur boxer in the world for several years, I do not have the right to enter a store.
Store where I see dozens of people queuing because, quite simply, they receive money from abroad from their children, siblings, friends and can buy the essentials to live... which I can't! In Holguín you can ask: when have they seen me in those stores after they took the 300 CUC from us? Never. And no one saw that Julita, no one has seen that.
I tell you more. When COVID had a family member seriously ill and I missed two days… two days! to the EIDE (due to the pandemic we had to work four days a week) and the deputy director deducted my salary for the month. What did my children eat then?
Ah! But today I decided to leave my country to work! To earn a salary that allows me to support my loved ones. I came to Bahrain to work to be able to bring prosperity to my family, to be able to give pleasure to my children. And know? As soon as I left Cuba, INDER withdrew the filthy 7,400 pesos of my Olympic gold medals. It seems that I stopped being a two-time Olympic champion.
Since I got on the plane without the permission of an organization that never gave me anything, nor invited me to an event, nor respected my module or anything at all, it seems that I am no longer a two-time Olympic champion.
Tell me how you were received in Bahrain.
Girl, why? Here I learned the respect with which an Olympic champion is treated: they bow to me, hug me, applaud me, greet me, take photos with me. Clarification: the people of Cuba do the same, not INDER, which has no consideration, which does not put us in our place, which constantly steals from us. The Olympic champions in Cuba? Hahahaha they don't exist!
Listening to you I think I somewhat know the answer to my next question. What made you sell your Olympic medals?
That was in 2016. I'll start by telling you that since 2004 I have never had anything to thank the INDER organization for; I suffered an ordeal of needs that only my family and close friends know about, I found myself in situations that drove me crazy and there came the possibility of selling the greatest thing I had, materially speaking: my medals from Sydney and Athens.
Since 2004 I have never had anything to thank the INDER organization for; I suffered an ordeal of needs that only my family and close friends know about, I found myself in such situations that drove me crazy and there came the possibility of selling the greatest thing I had, materially speaking: my medals from Sydney and Athens.
I had nothing to eat, nothing to support my loved ones. Today I can tell you that I have no regrets.
Now the tainted auras of the Holguín INDER brand me as a traitor, as having abandoned my ideals. I left for this country and they had already gathered all the signatures to take away the 7,400 pesos of my Olympic medals. Here I earn in one month what I earned there in almost two years.
I tell you something. I asked a boy whose name I withhold what he would do if he returned to Cuba? And he replied: “If you come back you are crazy.” So, if a child thinks that, what can adults, young people, think?
Yes, I can assure you that the first traitors are those who run the sport, who have everything, a car, a house, perks and nothing else they catch and punish them, they become the most reluctant and deny everything to which they have been "faithful."
There are many who, fortunately, have sought new horizons for their lives and those of their families in professional boxing. What can you tell me about the many Cubans who have opened a victorious path in such a difficult purpose?
What to tell you? Several have demonstrated it: Robeisy, Gamboa, Ugás. We have been and are a power. This youth that is making its way is going to elevate Cuban boxing to the highest level of professionalism. We are stars and at the highest level we will show it too.
This youth that is making its way is going to elevate Cuban boxing to the highest level of professionalism. We are stars and at the highest level we will show it too
Unfortunately everyone, including the highest levels of the country, realizes that sport is in decline; There is corruption, theft from athletes, sending technicians who have no history abroad. And nothing happens. Add to that the stampede of athletes from any discipline.
For the person born in the city of Holguín, who practiced ball and volleyball in his early years, who had Juan Domínguez as his first coach in the sport of fists, a bright path opens up far from the City of Parks. I think it is time for intelligence to make its way into Kinde's mind and heart to embrace what social media gave him: an indefinite ticket to freedom and recognition of his greatness!
What do you think?
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