The Paris 2024 Olympics will serve as a stage this Sunday for a curious duel between Cubans Loren Berto Alfonso Domínguez and double Olympic champion Julio César La Cruz, better known as La Sombra.
At 28 years old, Loren Berto will compete in Paris under the flag of Azerbaijan, the country with which he won the Olympic bronze medal at Tokyo 2020, in the light heavyweight category (75-81 kilograms). This Sunday, July 28, at 4:18 PM (local time), the Cuban boxer, who is now an Azerbaijani national, will face the Camagüey native Julio César La Cruz, who is 31 years old and 182 centimeters tall.
Three years younger and seven centimeters taller (189 cm), Loren Berto will have the chance to face La Sombra, a fighter who sees the dictator Fidel Castro as an idol and shouted "Homeland and Life, no! Homeland or Death, We Will Overcome!" after defeating his compatriot Enmanuel Reyes Pla, who was competing for Spain in Tokyo 2020.
Originally from Havana, Loren Berto is one of more than 20 Cubans who will compete for other delegations in the Paris 2024 Olympics. The draw determined that the first fight of double Olympic champion Julio César La Cruz would be against his compatriot Loren Berto, who has achieved excellent results competing for Azerbaijan.
The Cuban naturalized as Azerbaijani already has a record to boast about with his adopted country. He achieved fifth place in 2019 at the World Championship in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in the 75-kilogram division. Later, he reached one of his most important medals when he won the Olympic bronze in Tokyo 2020, in the 81-kilogram category, after losing to fellow Cuban Arlen López.
In 2021, Loren Berto touched glory by becoming the world champion in the 86 kilograms category at the World Boxing Championships, a well-deserved reward for a journey that took him to the top after not having support in the boxing scene of his home country.
The boxer from the Cuban school demonstrated his enormous talent and progress, as just a few months after winning the Olympic bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, he achieved world glory in Serbia, a tournament where he firmly established himself in the world elite.
In the semifinals of the 2021 Boxing World Cup, Loren Berto defeated his compatriot Herich Ruiz, in a fight where he showed an emotional gesture of respect towards his rival, the coaches, and the country that witnessed his birth. At the end of the match, he raised Herich's hand, went to the corner, and greeted the island's coaches, placing his hand over the flag on the chest of one of them.
Now, Loren Berto will seek a new Olympic medal, but he will have to overcome La Cruz, who will try to become a three-time Olympic boxing champion, something that only three boxers have achieved before, including two other Cubans. This duel promises to be an epic clash between two talents trained in the same school, but with different paths and destinies.
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