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Three Cuban boxers traveled last Saturday to Santiago de Chile, where they will compete in professional matches this Friday organized by the World Boxing Association, while a new opponent was officially announced for the two-time Olympic champion Arlen López ahead of his fight on May 1 in Palma de Mallorca.
According to the official site JIT, Erislandy Álvarez, Lázaro Álvarez, and Yusnier Sorsano lead the delegation aiming to remain undefeated in their professional careers, with 10-round fights in defense of titles from that organization, as reported by the president of the Cuban Boxing Federation, Alberto Puig de la Barca.
"The aim is to conclude the preparations at the event venue, in order to finalize a well-designed work," explained Puig, who traveled with the group along with coaches José Ramón Amador, Julio Lázaro Mena, and Rolando Acebal.
Erislandy Álvarez (6-0), Olympic champion of Paris 2024 in the 63.5-kilogram category, will defend his Latin American continental title against the Panamanian José Núñez (17-0-2), one of the most challenging opponents in the group due to his extensive unbeaten record.
Lázaro Álvarez (10-0), three-time amateur world champion and three-time Olympic bronze medalist, will defend the continental American title in the 61.3 kilograms category against Brazilian Jackson Furtado (12-3).
Yusnier Sorsano (2-0) will defend the Federlatin title —won last November at the Hotel Internacional de Varadero— against the Argentine Jonathan Wilson Sánchez (26-8-1) at 69.8 kilograms.
In parallel, the Cuban Boxing Federation confirmed a change in the lineup for May 1st in Palma de Mallorca: following the withdrawal of the initially announced opponent, the super middleweight Arlen López (6-0), two-time Olympic champion in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, will face the undefeated Argentine Leonel Eduardo Ávila (12-0) in a 10-round match.
In that same Spanish evening, two other Cubans with Olympic credentials will participate: the featherweight Saidel Horta (1-0), world runner-up from Tashkent 2023, will face the Venezuelan Fernando José Toro (11-0), while the flyweight Alejandro Claro (1-0), a two-time world bronze medalist, will compete against the Colombian Edinson Martínez (15-7-3), with both bouts lasting eight rounds.
Cuban professional boxing was banned for over six decades, since 1962, when the Revolution prohibited paid sports. The institutional relaunch began in 2022 under the auspices of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education, and Recreation, and the Cuban Boxing Federation, with AGON Sports as a key partner and the WBA as the main sanctioning body.
Since then, Cuban boxers have accumulated Latin American, American, and Federlatin continental titles. The card on November 29, 2025, in Varadero was particularly notable: Cuba won all seven fights and conquered or retained three titles from the WBA, with victories from Erislandy Álvarez, Lázaro Álvarez, and Sorsano himself.
The two events this week and the one on May 1st represent the most ambitious bet of Cuban boxing on international circuits since it resumed its professional path, with six active boxers in venues in Chile and Spain in less than ten days.
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