Angel Espinosa (on the right in the photo) – from:mundo deportivo.com
Aerial of Giovanni Manenti
If he The United States still holds the lead in the Olympic medal table for boxing – 50 Gold Medals compared to the 41 obtained by Cuba – they also owe it in part to the infamous decision of the “Leader Maximo” Fidel Castro by also boycott the 1988 Seoul Gamesedition renamed “of reconciliation“, after the two previous ones (Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984) had been conditioned by the mutual absences (with certain exceptions…) of the respective Western and Eastern blocs…
The motivation assumed by Castro was South Korea’s failure to organize the event jointly with neighboring North Koreawhich was also obviously absent, together with Ethiopia and, with hindsight, this choice turns out to be extremely unfortunate.
And, of course, The ones who pay the price are the athletes and, in particular, the Cuban boxerswho – since the Caribbean country began participating en masse in the Games again, i.e. since 1968 in Mexico City – have dominated the medal table on 7 occasions out of the 12 editions…
How much this had an impact, in terms of missed medals, is certified by the outcome of the 1986 World Championships held in Reno, Nevada, in which the Cubans took the podium in 11 (!!) of the 12 scheduled categories – the only exception being the Superleggeri – with a haul of 7 Gold, two silver and as many bronze, while in the following edition held in Moscow in 1989 the medals (4 gold, as many silver and one bronze…) are reduced to 9partly also due to the usual “special consideration” of the judges towards the home athletes.
Having made this necessary premise, among those who have suffered most from this double absence at the Games there is the protagonist of our history today, that is to say Angel Espinosa, middleweight born on April 2, 1966 in Holguin, the fourth largest city on the island with over 300 thousand inhabitantswhich comes to the attention of the world boxing panorama on the occasion of World Junior Championships held in Santo Domingo in November 1983…
Just 17 years old, Espinosa dominates the Tournament in the Superlight Category, overcoming the Italian Scardino in the first roundand then got the better of the Bulgarian Tzvetan Todorov in the quarter-finals and the Canadian Howard Grant in the semi-finals with a unanimous verdict (5-0), before “complete the work” eliminating the American Meldrick Taylor in the Final by knockout in the second round.
This outcome heralds what the “Olympic curse” for the Cuban boxer, given that the following year, on the occasion of Los Angeles Games 1984, Taylor himself wins the Gold Medal, moreover in the lower Featherweight Categoryand then had a good professional career, which led him to win the WBA Welterweight world title in January 1991…
Espinosa, on the other hand, is forced “to bite the brakes”, even if he continues to collect victories, as Cuba deserts the 1985 edition of the World Cup precisely due to the fact that it is being held in Seoul, so that the first opportunity to definitely show off presents itself for the Caribbean boxer on American soil, i.e. at the aforementioned Iridata exhibition which takes place from 8 to 18 May 1986 a Reno.
In the Nevada ring Espinosa, moved up in category to Super Welterweight (at the limit of 71 kilograms…), he first gets rid of the limit of the Frenchman Faouzi Hattab and the Canadian Dan Sherry, and then prevail with a unanimous verdict (5-0) over the Soviet Manvel Avetisyan and therefore make it his own world title by overcoming (4-1) the East German Enrico Richter, who he had already defeated on 9 March of the same year in Halle with a unanimous verdict…
Enter this Review, the other East German Henry Maske was defeated by the American Darrin Allen in the Middleweight Finala name to keep in mind as it will soon find itself on the path of the Cuban, once he moves up to the same Category, where he debuts in the best possible way, that is, beating the fresh world champion by stopping the fight in the first round in the middle of the following month of December, in the usual annual meeting between Cuba and the United States.
An Allen with whom Espinosa crosses gloves again also on the occasion of Pan American Games in mid-August 1987 in the ring ofConvention Center” of Indianapolis, a match valid for the Quarterfinals which ends with a similar outcomejust as the challenge with the Uruguayan Juan Carlos Montiel ends before the limit, while in the Final Canadian Otis Grant at least remained standing for the entire matchdespite losing with a unanimous verdict…
Without excessive rivals anymore, that’s it Espinosa appears at the end of the following month in Belgrade for the fifth edition of the World Cup – from which the United States is absent this time – where “music not change”, in the sense that the Ugandan Patrick Lihanda was defeated with a unanimous verdict (5-0), and then it was the turn of the Yugoslavian Nusret Redzepi to go down during the second round and therefore, in the Final, the challenge with the reported Maske has no history, success with a unanimous verdict and many greetings.
You will therefore understand how, in view of Seoul 1988 Games, the now 22 year old Cuban boxer would have been the logical favorite for the Gold Medal in the Middleweight Categorya prediction further supported by the outcome of a subsequent one confrontation with the East German, this time at his home in Halle at the beginning of March 1988 and concluded with the same result…
Conversely, in the ring set up at the “Jamsil Students’ Gymnasium” of the South Korean capital, Maske, without his main opponent, had an easy game, winning all four matches played with a unanimous verdict (5-0) including the decisive match against the Canadian Egerton Marcus, to then move up in the Mediomassim categoryi (limit of 81 kilograms …), perhaps precisely so as not to meet Espinosa again.
Choice that pays for the East German, who the following year, on the occasion of the World Championships which took place in Moscow in the second half of September 1989, won the world title by overcoming the reigning Cuban champion Pablo Romero in the Final (another boxer largely penalized by the double Olympic boycott…), before taking advantage of the collapse of the Berlin Wall and starting a professional career under the flag of United Germany which saw him win the IBF version world title…
Espinosa, for his part, intends to demonstrate in the ring of the Soviet capital how much he was unjustly denied in an Olympic way, but this time, after having beat the Polish Wojciech Misiak by kot in the first round, and on points the other East German Enrico Richter (20-10) in the quarter-finals and the West German Sven Ottke (13-3) in the semi-finalshe had to give up in the Final in front of the superiority of the Soviet Andrey Kurnyavka, who won on points 28-13 for what represents the second defeat in the Caribbean boxer’s careerafter the one suffered by the American Bomani Parker in mid-December 1986.
Not selected for the 1990 World Cup, Espinosa also decides to move up in category in view of the Olympic event scheduled for the Games at the end of July 1992 in BarcelonaReview for which it is selected despite the fact that it comes defeated on points (27-14) at the end of May 1992 by his compatriot Orestes SolanoGold the previous year at the Pan America Games in Havana…
In all likelihood, the Cuban Federation seemed right to grant the now 26-year-old boxer the chance to try to seize the “Olympic Glory” and, in the ring of “Juventut Club Pavilion” say Badalona, the start is promising, with the match against the Turkish Mehmet Gurgen interrupted by the referee after 1’54” during the second round.
In the next round, against the Lombard Roberto Castelli, Espinosa struggles even less, given that the match is interrupted after 2’34” of the first round due to disqualification of the blue (header …), before his dream vanishes in the match valid for the Quarterfinals against the Polish Wojciech Bartnik, who prevails on points (9-7) by a narrow marginonly to then be defeated in the semi-final by the German Torsten May, who took the Gold Medal by overcoming the Ukrainian Rotyslav Zaulychny on points in the Final…
With this match, Espinosa puts an end to a boxing career that saw him play 57 fights with a record of 53 victories (17 before the limit…) and only four defeats and always on points, to then undertake the coaching activity.
New assignment that Angel Espinosa continued in the United States when he emigrated in 2010carrying out their duties at the “Hialeah School of Boxing” in Miami, Florida, where moreover he was found lifeless on 12 April 2017, at the age of 50, the victim of an illness given that for months he had been suffering from a strong migraine, with high levels of pressure for which he would have had to undergo surgery for progressive blindness…
But fate preceded him, knocking him out like none of the opponents he faced in the ring had managed to do…
2024-02-10 17:22:10
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