With restrictions now lifted, women in Cuba are dreaming of being part of the nation’s team that competes at the upcoming IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in Niš that started on Sunday with its first preliminary fights.

A longtime ban was removed back in 2022, which originally only allowed women to train, but not compete, in boxing.

For the first time, women’s boxers from Cuba attempted to qualify for the Olympic Games, but none were able to make it to Paris 2024; now, they were seeking a trip to Niš for the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships.

Cuba brings three boxers to Serbia – Melani de la Caridad Girado, Dayira Mesa and Yoana Rodriguez, hoping to replicate the success of the men’s team, who are by far the most successful nation at the IBA World Boxing Championships.

Rodriguez, who competes in the 81kg division, said they hoped that they could inspire others much like the men’s team have for decades.

‘The men have put our country very high, representing boxing at the world level,’ said Rodriguez, ‘We hope that one day we, the women, can also put the name of Cuba high.’

She went on to say, ‘The preparation has been very good, although we have not had so many international competitions, but we have prepared very well and I trust that everything will turn out quite well. I am very proud to be representing my country, since it is the first time that I will be in the arena and at such a highly competitive level, that we will be the Cuban team; and it is an honor for me to be part of this team and represent Cuba.’

Cuban Boxing Federation President Alberto Puig de la Barca was pivotal to the reforms in women’s boxing and has expressed his excitement for this historic moment for the island nation, while ensuring expectations remain modest in these early years.

‘It is the first participation of Cuba in a female event of this level, and I do tell you that the girls who will represent us are very motivated, they are very well prepared, but logically the level of IBA Women’s World Championships is quite high, and we hope that they do a good job. If we manage to secure a victory for each of them, even if it is just one fight, we are already satisfied with our first performance,’ said Puig de la Barca.

‘You have to realize that Cuban women have only been practicing boxing for two years. The experience is low, but I can guarantee you that we have around 300 girls already in the high-performance centers, in the school categories, that we have already carried out the first National School Championships and last year we carried out two National Championships,’ Cuban Boxing Federation President added.

‘You can already see a certain development in the aspects of technical and tactical characters. We are sure the future of Cuban female boxing is in the girls who are in junior and youth age now. Today they are in our high-performance boxing centers at the level of each province.’

Cuba will compete for the first time at the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships in the evening session tonight, on 10 March, with Girado in action against Halima Vunjabei of Tanzania in the 57kg division. Rodriguez gets underway against Sokhiba Ruzmetova of Uzbekistan on 11 March in the 81kg category, before Mesa’s first match takes place on 12 March against Russian third-seeded Anastasia Shamonova.

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Media contacts:

Elena Sobol, Head of Communications and PR, International Boxing Association: elena.sobol@iba.sport

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