Cuban Erislandy Álvarez showcased a devastating offensive this Sunday to defeat Georgian Lasha Guruli and advance to the discussion for the gold medal in the 63.5 kilograms category at the Paris 2024 Olympic boxing.
From the opening bell, the world runner-up from Tashkent 2023 unleashed a flurry of punches to leave no room for doubt and received a unanimous vote of 5-0 (30-26, 30-27, 30-26, 30-27, 30-27) against a Guruli who could never counteract his opponent's actions.
In this way, the athlete from Cienfuegos contributed the first silver medal for the island's delegation, awaiting the match of his compatriot Arlen López (80) against the Ukrainian Oleksandr Khyzhniak, a silver medalist at Tokyo 2020 and world leader in 2017, both at 75 kilograms.
López seeks to become the fourth boxer capable of winning the planet's main multi-sport event three times.
The story goes that this feat has been achieved only by the Hungarian Laszlo Papp (1948, 1952, 1956) and the Cubans Teófilo Stevenson (1972, 1976, 1980) and Félix Savón (1992, 1996, 2000).
The boxing from the largest of the Antilles arrived in France with a total of five fighters, but in earlier rounds, the star Julio César la Cruz (92), Saidel Horta (57), and Alejandro Claro (51) were eliminated.
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