Cuban boxers will be allowed to fight professionally for the first time since the 1960s under a deal with a Mexican promoter, officials said.
HAVANA—
Cuba has been a global power in boxing on the amateur level, focusing heavily on Olympic success. It won four gold medals at the past Tokyo Olympics. “The moment has come. We have spent years studying this possibility,” said Ariel Sainz, vice president of the official Institute of Sport, appearing on state television Monday night.
He also noted it would allow athletes to improve their incomes. Many Cuban athletes from other sports have left the island in recent decades to seek a lucrative professional career not available at home under Cuba’s socialist system. The US ambassador to Ireland, Claire Cronin, said at a news conference in Dublin that the department of the treasury is offering a reward of $5 million for information that will lead to the “financial destruction” of the Kinahan crime gang or the arrest and conviction of its leaders.
Speaking at the news conference in Dublin, Irish police commissioner Drew Harris said: “What was implicit before, and what some individuals could choose to ignore, is absolutely explicit—if you deal with the individuals who are sanctioned as part of the Kinahan organized crime gang, you are dealing with criminals engaged in drug trafficking.