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Go moving the national boxing team, located for months in a larger gym within the CAR in Madrid. The previous one had outgrown him, where there was hardly room for a ring and a handful of sacks. The growth of the group, accompanied by good results, invited the coach Rafa Lozano to ask for a change and he is still working on those, adapting the space to the needs of a selection in which parity is a reality. In the afternoon training that ABC attends, the girls are the majority and the Federation is very excited about them, because that group has to leave the first national olympic. Everyone present looks forward to Paris 2024, including the youngest, whose name and amazing physical resemblance to the coach give him away.
Rafa Lozano Junior (Córdoba, 2004) is the son of the former double Olympic medalist who now leads the national team. Both of their eyes light up when they talk about the other. Mutual admiration. The young boxer is on vacation after winning just a few weeks ago gold in the young European of Montenegro, the first Spanish to achieve it. Even so, he likes to go through the training of the absolute team because he knows that learning from the best is how he will come to fulfill his dream of being an Olympic champion. Because Despite his 16 years, the young fighter is clear about his goals and his pulse does not tremble when he talks about them. “I have seen my father’s Olympic medals many times and I have imagined winning one and it makes my hair stand on end. It is a dream that I want to fulfill and I hope it will be in Paris », he explains with a frightening assurance. Above all because I would arrive at those 2024 Games with just 19 years. “There have already been boxers who have been Olympic champions being very young and if they have been able to achieve it, I think I can also do it,” he says under the watchful eye of his father.
The coach knows that the road is not easy. At least yours wasn’t and it’s very different from the one your son is following. «At his age I boxed in a town, in Puente Genil, and had a very different boxing style. It was short or medium distance and had hardly any technique. I was acquiring it later when I entered the national team. I see him now and he is light years away from what I was when I was 16 years old. To give you an idea, I made my debut in a modest evening in the town and he did it in a European championship», He explains, marking the differences of almost thirty years of evolution in this sport.
When Lozano Sr. was an Olympic medalist (bronze in Atlanta 1996 and silver in Sydney 2000), Rafita had not yet been born. «I have seen all his fights on YouTube and he was a very complete boxer. Seeing him I don’t think I was able to beat him … at least for now, “he jokes.
From the goals to the ring
Watching boxing fights is the great passion of Rafita, who finds it difficult to disconnect from the sport. «I tend to see Spaniards a lot now as Kiko Martínez, Sandor Martín or Sergio García. Spanish professional boxing is in fashion and I follow them a lot, but I also see amateur fights, in which the rhythm is different and that is where I have to focus the most now to improve. He also does it in his teammates. In Youba Sissokho or Gabi Escobar, teachers for a Balita who aims high, but as a child wanted to be a Real Madrid footballer. I am whiter than the shield. Let’s see if one day, if I win the Olympic gold, they will take me to do the honor roll at the Bernabéu», He notes with amusement, while looking back at those days when football occupied most of his time. “One day, I was in the car alone after training and I remember that was when I decided on boxing. I saw a better future there than in football and since then I have not regretted a single day, “he explains.
It is true that his progression has been very fast, but he has two very tough years ahead of him. The next, the last junior, will be a test to check its regularity. The next, with the Games on the horizon, the first in the elite category, in which he will have to fight inside and outside the national team for that place in the Games. Lozano father, el Bala, is clear that there will be no favorable treatment. He will have to fight copper with his teammates to achieve Olympic glory.
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