Press conference prior to Domadores de Cuba's showdown in Aguascalientes

Havana, May 19 (JIT) - The director of the Sports Institute of the State of Aguascalientes, Manuel Aceves, highlighted the presence of Domadores de Cuba in the professional boxing card scheduled for this Friday in that Mexican city.

"This is a discipline that in Cuba has given great triumphs and true men," he asserted in a press conference also attended by Juan Carlos Pelayo, vice president of the Federation of Boxing Commissions of Mexico.

Aceves described the evening as historic, praised the fact that it is in this city that the island is entering the professional arena and thanked the atmosphere in which Mexican athletes and trainers exchange with their Cuban counterparts.

For his part, the president of the Cuban Boxing Federation, Alberto Puig, recalled the positive experience lived in that same scenario with a match against professionals that he considered key in the preparation of the Cuban team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

He said that now the best prepared men in the six chosen divisions have been called up and stressed that the exclusion of Olympic champion Andy Cruz responds to irregularities in the preparation associated with indiscipline that undermined his performance.

The meeting with the media also had among the protagonists the two-time Olympic champion Julio Cesar La Cruz and the triple champion Lazaro Alvarez, and their rivals.

"I like challenges and I recognize this opportunity as attractive," said Mexican Francisco Mercado, Lázaro Alvarez's opponent, shortly before Colombian Deivis Cásseres, who will cross blows with Julio Cesar La Cruz, spoke in a similar tone.

After talking to reporters, Puig was received by the governor of Aguascalientes, Martin Orozco Sandoval, and the organizers informed a last minute change: the opponent of world champion Yoenlis Feliciano will be the host Juan Carlos Raygosa, replacing his compatriot Octavio Sandoval.