Cuban boxer Kevin Brown dreams of being a great champion in the United States

A good number of representatives of the Cuban Boxing School today swarm around professional rings in the United States, in pursuit of a dream.

Guillermo Rigodeaux, Yordenis Ugás, Erislandy Lara and Yuriorkis Gamboa, significant pioneers in succeeding at the highest level of professional boxing, are joined by a plethora of new figures led by Robeisy Ramírez and David Morrell.

And precisely this group of young people belongsKevin Heiler-Brown, known among the ropes as El Alfa.

A pleasure to talk to you through this video call. I read the interview of my father, the fighterOdelis Herrero. When I was little I followed you on the news, in your documentaries and I am delighted. As you say, we are a group of dreamers who aspire to reach high places in professional boxing, a way to improve our lives and that of our families.

You were a child with excellent grades and you belonged to the music interest circle of the Nuevitas Municipal Concert Band, playing the pailas; However, boxing attracted your attention and you even went secretly from your grandparents to watch the training and fights.

Your mother Liuba, an excellent taekwondo player, left very early; Your father stayed abroad and they did not let him enter Cuba due to abandonment of his mission; Your maternal grandparents have been everything for you and even though they preferred you to be a musician, you opted for boxing.

Was it in those early escapades for the ring that you decided to be a boxing great?

Girl, my first steps were in other sports: athletics, basketball, ball... until boxing caught me. The gym was behind my house, you can imagine; always the sound of the gloves hitting the pear, the bag, the sparring, the shouts of the coaches guiding their disciples. That got into your blood.

I remember my first teachers Yurney Durand, Humberto Romero, David Rodríguez and Giorbis Marte, whom I remember very much today.

My beginnings were not easy. I entered when I was 9 years old, an age at which gloves are not yet used. They measured you through technical tests to demonstrate your skills: such as swiss jumping, flat steps and straight punches. Me, without any technique, but with a good swiss. Nothing, it didn't go very well but I continued because I knew it was my sport, what I wanted to be.

I want to add something to you from this early stage of my life. As you say, my mother, an excellent athlete, died young and I was never treated, as I should have, by the INDER at any level.

And they only worry when you bear fruit, when you stop bearing fruit you are quickly forgotten. Still, I fought to make my way in national boxing, although I never forgot the lack of help I received. I remember my grandmother breaking her back so that I wouldn't lack anything and that makes me remorseful.

That's why she didn't want me to be an athlete, “for what?” he told me. Luckily I am where everything depends on me and my coaching staff and I don't have to ask anyone for anything. I earn everything.

When do you join the youth national team and when do you enter the senior national team?

My start in the youth national team was in 2010. They knew me for my repeated victories in National School Games. I was at the CEAR “Cardín”, headquarters of the novice boxers, until I was 18 when I moved to the Finca in Wajay.

In my youth I was under the aegis of several technicians, led by Humberto Horta and when I joined the national team I was always led by that glory of Cuban boxing that is Juan Hernández Sierra, world and Olympic multiple medalist.

For me, a father, with whom I had absolute confidence. He poured all his wealth of knowledge into me and I always find a place to show him my eternal gratitude. Hernández Sierra shared with me the good and bad moments and I think that a man who gave everything deserves greater support from the boxing commission.

What did it mean to you to be crowned at the World Youth Boxing Championships in Yerevan, Armenia 2012?

For me it was a great pride. I worked hard those two years that I spent on the youth national team, I was able to demonstrate my talent. In addition to obtaining the scepter at 64 kilos, I was selected as the best boxer in that World Cup where 368 fighters participated.

Tell me something about the Finca inside, about those “mysteries” that surround the Cuban Boxing School, so prestigious in the world and that has always been a source of pride for its creator, Dr. Alcides Sagarra.

The place where the national boxing team is based, known throughout the world as “La Finca”, has been the cradle of Olympic, world and continental champions for decades.

There you have to fight hard to be among the first men in the country. I stayed there for nine years and lived sad experiences. It is very true that in each division there are up to five athletes with often even quality and only one can represent the country in a certain event, but there are second figures who need the opportunity to demonstrate their worth.

Preventing it leads to apathy, discouragement. This is also where favoritism for a certain fighter on the part of the coach and even the national commissioner himself plays a role.

In my case I lived many bitter moments; fights that for me and the fans were clear victories and resulted in defeats with the condescension of commissioner Alberto Püig de la Barca... And I say this because I lived it, I experienced it firsthand.

I had several confrontations with Roniel Iglesias, without a doubt a star of national boxing, a double Olympic champion and in some cases I lost but in others, not. There was a good rivalry between us, we gave flavor to the ring and the public was excited by our fights.

Without wanting to go into too much detail, in 2018, when I lost fighting for silver in the National, due to a headbutt in a match where the doctor decided to stop a very good fight, I knew I could beat him.

Later, I was successful in a Challenger Match. I surpassed an Olympic and world monarch, what else did I have to do? ah! because they were never satisfied with my progress and incessant thirst for improvement.

As it was, I felt uncomfortable, disappointed, unmotivated. I was going to train without desire and what was nice day by day was turning into a nightmare. They were years of enduring many uncertain words, many deceptions and even hypocrisy. However, I never gave up boxing but there were other plans in my mind.

In 2022, going to the Pan American Boxing Championship in Guayaquil, Ecuador, you desert. Long journey to the United States, can you tell us if you made the decision on the flight, did you already have it planned and, above all, how do you get to the United States, because of the “volcanoes”?

After returning from the 2021 World Championship I had the opportunity to stay in Holland but it was not my intention to defect in Europe, but I was clear that my future was outside of Cuba. What I experienced in 2021 urged me to achieve my dream and the opportunity was given to me at the Pan American sports event in Ecuador.

Staying in that Andean country was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. I spent a month and a half in Ecuador and, after looking for a way to start the trip to the United States, the final goal of my dreams,My partner Herich Ruíz and I embarked on the journey.

We crossed borders, we visited six Central American nations, we did “tourism” not exempt from the logical fear of what could happen to us. In the end… we managed to get there!

Getting there was difficult but how do you get to climb professional rings?

I had the opportunity to debut professionally with a victory by KO, a fight that was broadcast on television in the United States; Very few boxers have that luck: making their debut in an eight-round fight and being televised. My aspirations are great; I have many goals to achieve and I work hard to achieve them because I know I will succeed.

Which of the professional boxing associations in the United States do you fight for?

Boxing has four organizations, the WBC, WBO, WBA and IBF; To get to them you have to have a long journey and where I am starting with my first belt won is with the WBA Continental; Then I will aspire to reach others with my daily dedication and sacrifice.

What is your opinion of Robeisy's triumph, of Morell's good progress, of the previous Cuban champions in professional boxing? For you, what differentiates professional boxing from amateur boxing?

Robeisy and Morrell are excellent boxers. I had the opportunity to share with them from boys to the national team and today here in this great country.

They are examples to follow for their quality and professionalism. Cuba has excellent representatives right now in American boxing and I think we are all working to leave a legacy; always put the name of our four letters high.

For me, the difference between professional and amateur boxing is big: in professional boxing it is about winning by KO, fights are agreed to over a greater number of rounds. It is very different.

In professional boxing you have to have more abilities to reach the 12th round in good physical condition: there are many tricks that we do not know in amateurism. The gloves are smaller, weighing only 8 and 10 ounces in the medium divisions. In amateur boxing the gloves are more padded to protect more and are 10 and 12 ounces.

What has it been like for you to reunite with your dad? How do you feel about the absence of your grandparents who did so much for you?

Meeting my dad again has been something new and wonderful; We all need the affection of a father, who is the one who helped me come into the world. We have good communication and the times that I have been able to be by his side I have felt very good.

As for the absence of my grandparents, who raised me and gave me everything, it is something very fundamental in my life. My grandfather is no longer here but wherever he is I know he is proud of me just like my grandmother is.

I will always be grateful to both of them and one of my big dreams is to hug her again and thank her for giving me so much wisdom and for loving me so much.

Current situation of Cuban sports, the stampede of athletes. Is it that the flag is not worth it or is it that we must prioritize life, the beautiful life that God gave us?

I feel that sport in general has declined greatly due to a lack of opportunities and creativity, combined with a lack of minimum conditions in training.

Cuba has always been a country that produces many stellar athletes in any discipline, but others, equally good, are left aside, forced to make the same decisions that I made, opt for another life that allows you to live with decorum, help to your people.

And no, we did not forget the flag. Wherever we are, we will always represent our flag, which is the land where we were born and where many people encourage you to get ahead.

The Cuban, wherever he is, feels identified with his homeland. I am proud of it and grateful to everyone who has helped me; I just have to keep working to make them proud of me.

Anyone who wants to get ahead should only focus on their own desires and not those of others, because there is only one life and happiness consists of what you do of your own free will and that makes you feel good about your conscience.

Dreams have no limits, that's why every day you dream of something different and among one of many would be that opportunity that I have repeatedly longed for: to be a great champion!