Coach Ismael Salas: "The leaders of Cuban boxing use their talents and when they no longer serve them they throw them away"

Twenty-six boxers, two of them girls, are part of the Salas Boxing Academy, a prestigious gym whose owner and main trainer is the man from Guantanamo.Ismael Antonio Salas.

Upon entering the facility, located in the heart of Las Vegas, United States, you can breathe a rich atmosphere of brotherhood and friendship, something that emanates from Salas himself.

This Cuban rellollo, born 66 years ago in Guaso lands, is a tireless worker, who does “80 sparrings a day.” How long have you been in this country, when did you open the Academy?

First I was in Miami where I founded my own gym but the City of the Sun is too good, a lot of entertainment; There is one in Las Vegas but it is expensive for the kids who want to get there and those who get there try to preserve themselves.

In Miami I trained Guillermo Rigondeaux and the Turkish Selcuk Aidin, both world champions of professionalism. From that group I still have a current monarch, the Japanese Kazuto Ioka, champion in four divisions: 105, 108, 112 and 115 pounds. I took Ioka seven times to win the Japanese national amateur championship and then to win professionally.

I have been living in Las Vegas for 15 years, where I created my academy which has produced several world champions of professional boxing, including Robeisy Ramírez, Erislandy Lara,Yordenis Ugás, the British Joe Joyce, the Japanese Kazuto Ioka and the Cuban American Brian Mendoza.

At the moment I have fighters from Japan, the United States, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Argentina, China and Great Britain.

What is your winning formula?

Good vibes, a lot of work, discipline and brotherhood. I have two coaches with whom I have formed a magnificent work team, the Cuban Yanier Lescay and the Aztec Fernando Díaz.

What about those you have here who haven't reached the top yet?

I have a new generation that is coming in handy:Kevin the Alpha, Yoelvis Gómez, the son of the great José Gómez, Yojanler Martínez are three of them; Furthermore, I am known for bringing champions to those who have failed in other gyms.

First steps of Ismael Salas?

I am from Guantánamo as you already know. There he was technical head of provincial boxing. Félix Savón, Candelario Duvergel, Joel Casamayor, Ángel Herrera, José Aguilar, Héctor Ramírez and Jesús Soyet left our gym. My second was the current technical chief at the Cuban boxing estate, Rolando Acebal. I went back and forth to the capital and traveled with the athletes to Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Oceania; That is, I have visited the five continents.

I graduated in 1987 from the Higher Institute of Sports based in Santiago de Cuba and do you know what the gift was?: sending me to North Korea because remember that they wanted to share the Olympic Games with Seoul and they sent me to form the North Korean squad boxing

As expected, that absurd proposal did not prosper and upon returning I participated in a tour of Venezuela, Colombia and Peru before what was a new “stimulation”: Pakistan!

It was not enough for them that he had to be in the nation that has the worst dictatorship on the planet but that he also remained in Pakistan, the homeland of Amwar Chowdry, who at that time was the president of the AIBA (International Boxing Association) and requested help from Cuba to prepare a team with a view to the Barcelona 92 Olympic Games.

And did they achieve a decent performance?

Nothing! but for me Barcelona was the springboard to freedom. I returned to Pakistan to collect my belongings and from there I arrived to Bangko, Thailand, where I worked in a gym with professional and amateur boxers. I can tell you that eight of my students became Olympic monarchs and the other six became professionals.

Later I worked in Japan, Australia and Germany. In this last country I trained the Olympic champions and later professional boxers Yuriorkis Gamboa and Odlanier Solís. Both made their professional boxing debut in that European nation. From then on I didn't touch amateur boxing anymore.

Boxing in Cuba, the flagship of Cuban sport

Look, the leaders of Cuban boxing use their talents and when they no longer serve them, they throw them away. That has always been like this. Acebal is now a “communist”, he does not remember the work we went through in Guantánamo.

Is your whole family here?

My dad worked at the naval base, he always knew what capitalism was. My mom lives in New Jersey with my brothers. I am married to Kotomi, a Japanese woman with whom I have my youngest child, Juan Enrique, 14 years old. I also have seven other children.

Salas, you were an eyewitness of what happened recently in Japan before Robeisy Ramírez's fight against the Japanese Satoshi Shimizu for the feather belt title of the World Boxing Organization (WBO). The Cuban was prohibited from wearing the national colors in his fight, he was They forbade them to play their anthem. How did everything go and why did you accept such reprehensible measures?

It is really reprehensible, although it is good to point out that the Cuban authorities have done him a favor because right now the Cuban community in Miami is celebrating the champion; That is, beyond his sporting activity, his fans... now they support him much more. The political blow was given by Robeisy with his Patria y Vida and when we sang our anthem at the end of the fight.

Japan does not like confrontation and they did not authorize us. Nothing could be done. Are you going to lose by no-show? That does not exist. See if it was a shame that we arrived 17 days in advance to acclimatize and it was not until we arrived at the weight that they informed us that we could not use the flag or the anthem due to a requirement from the Cuban Embassy in Tokyo. That was to destabilize him… but they didn't succeed! Robeisy knocked out in the fifth,he sang his anthem and took out his flag. It was a double victory, don't you think?