The following list of Cubans currently in pro boxing, by weight class, comes from Boxrec, so feel free to check my stated facts:
Minimum Weight - None
Light Flyweight - None
Flyweight - None
Super Flyweight - (One) Leonardo Sanchez (19 years old) 2-1-0
Bantamweight - (One) Yan Barthelemy 12-3
Super Bantamweight - (Three) Guillermo Rigondeaux, Yoandris Salinas 20-0-1, Hairon Socarras (19 years old) 6-0-1
Featherweight - (Two) Luis Franco 11-1 (fighting Billy Dib for his belt on March 1), Jessy Cruz 8-5-1
Super Featherweight - (Four) Including Yuriorkis Gamboa and Rances Barthelemy 18-0
Lightweight - (Seven) Including Richard Abril, Angelo Santana 14-0 (watch out for this kid), and Yoelvis Gamboa (Yuri’s brother) 8-1
Light Welterweight- (One) Michael Santander 3-0 (23 years old)
Welterweight- (Three) Yordenis Ugas 13-1, (and two others, one 36 and the other 40)
Light Middleweight- (Six) Erislandy Lara, Yudel Johnson (13-1), Inocente Fiz 15-0, Leosvy Mayedo 3-0 (and two others 40 and older)
Middleweight - (Three) None really worth noting, unless you count “Kid Chocolate,” Peter Quillin, which would make four.
Super Middleweight - (One) Julio Acosta 5-1 (38 years old)
Light Heavyweight - (Four) Umberto Savigne 10-1 (34 years old) Miguel Velozo 15-1 (39 years old), Vilier Quinonez 5-0 ,Yordanis Despaigne 9-2
Cruiserweight- (Four) Yoan Pablo Hernandez, Pedro Rodriguez 13-1, Yasmany Consuegra 10-0, Yenisei Gonzalez 10-0
Heavyweight - (Nine) Odlanier Solis, Mike Perez 18-0, Juan Carlos Gomez (39) 51-3, Luis Ortiz 19-0, Glendy Hernandez, 9-0 and four others.
Out of fifty named Cuban boxers on this list, there are six present or past champions: Gamboa, Rigo, Abril, Quillin, Gomez and Yoan Pablo Hernandez. Lara is top-ten. Many of the men on this list are either too young or inexperienced to have made a splash yet, or too old to ever make an impact. Even men like Gamboa, Rigo and Lara don’t have many fights, because they haven’t been free very long. Even a woeful underachiever like Solis has been ranked top-ten in the past. Guys like Angelo Santana aren’t very known yet, but they will be. Angelo is a bad young motherfucker.
Fifty professional fighters spread throughout all categories…. Boxrec lists 89 Filipinos in the Super Bantamweight division alone! Mexicans? 239!! Even Puerto Rico, with her tiny population, boasts 25 fighters at 122! For a people that have been shut out of pro boxing for over a half-century, and only number about 1.6 million in the United States, Cubans have done pretty well. Certain ignoramuses on this site want to make themselves feel good by putting down Cuban fighters. God only knows how many Cuban champs there’d be if we had a population of 115 million. Truth always wins in the end.
Minimum Weight - None
Light Flyweight - None
Flyweight - None
Super Flyweight - (One) Leonardo Sanchez (19 years old) 2-1-0
Bantamweight - (One) Yan Barthelemy 12-3
Super Bantamweight - (Three) Guillermo Rigondeaux, Yoandris Salinas 20-0-1, Hairon Socarras (19 years old) 6-0-1
Featherweight - (Two) Luis Franco 11-1 (fighting Billy Dib for his belt on March 1), Jessy Cruz 8-5-1
Super Featherweight - (Four) Including Yuriorkis Gamboa and Rances Barthelemy 18-0
Lightweight - (Seven) Including Richard Abril, Angelo Santana 14-0 (watch out for this kid), and Yoelvis Gamboa (Yuri’s brother) 8-1
Light Welterweight- (One) Michael Santander 3-0 (23 years old)
Welterweight- (Three) Yordenis Ugas 13-1, (and two others, one 36 and the other 40)
Light Middleweight- (Six) Erislandy Lara, Yudel Johnson (13-1), Inocente Fiz 15-0, Leosvy Mayedo 3-0 (and two others 40 and older)
Middleweight - (Three) None really worth noting, unless you count “Kid Chocolate,” Peter Quillin, which would make four.
Super Middleweight - (One) Julio Acosta 5-1 (38 years old)
Light Heavyweight - (Four) Umberto Savigne 10-1 (34 years old) Miguel Velozo 15-1 (39 years old), Vilier Quinonez 5-0 ,Yordanis Despaigne 9-2
Cruiserweight- (Four) Yoan Pablo Hernandez, Pedro Rodriguez 13-1, Yasmany Consuegra 10-0, Yenisei Gonzalez 10-0
Heavyweight - (Nine) Odlanier Solis, Mike Perez 18-0, Juan Carlos Gomez (39) 51-3, Luis Ortiz 19-0, Glendy Hernandez, 9-0 and four others.
Out of fifty named Cuban boxers on this list, there are six present or past champions: Gamboa, Rigo, Abril, Quillin, Gomez and Yoan Pablo Hernandez. Lara is top-ten. Many of the men on this list are either too young or inexperienced to have made a splash yet, or too old to ever make an impact. Even men like Gamboa, Rigo and Lara don’t have many fights, because they haven’t been free very long. Even a woeful underachiever like Solis has been ranked top-ten in the past. Guys like Angelo Santana aren’t very known yet, but they will be. Angelo is a bad young motherfucker.
Fifty professional fighters spread throughout all categories…. Boxrec lists 89 Filipinos in the Super Bantamweight division alone! Mexicans? 239!! Even Puerto Rico, with her tiny population, boasts 25 fighters at 122! For a people that have been shut out of pro boxing for over a half-century, and only number about 1.6 million in the United States, Cubans have done pretty well. Certain ignoramuses on this site want to make themselves feel good by putting down Cuban fighters. God only knows how many Cuban champs there’d be if we had a population of 115 million. Truth always wins in the end.
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