Missing boxers claim they fled because of weight gain

Cuban boxers speak out
Missing boxers claim they fled because of weight gain
Posted: Thursday August 9, 2007 2:39PM
Updated: Thursday August 9, 2007 5:11PM

HAVANA (AP) -- Two Cuban boxers who disappeared during the Pan American
Games in Brazil say they ate and drank excessively before a weigh-in,
then fled because of fears they were too heavy to fight.

Guillermo Rigondeaux, a two-time Olympic bantamweight champion, and
Erislandy Lara, a welterweight world champion, were missing for 11 days.
They were arrested in a resort city near Rio de Janeiro and deported to
Cuba on Sunday.

In an interview with the Communist Party newspaper Granma published
Thursday, Rigondeaux and Lara said they never intended to defect and
denied reports they signed contracts with German promoters while missing.

They also maintained they never sought asylum in Brazil as political
refugees, and said they asked to return to Cuba.

The fighters said they went shopping the night before their July 22
weigh-ins and were "intercepted" by a Cuban and another man who offered
them drinks in a taxi. They declined, but later met the Cuban and others
at a bar.

They said the group might have gained access to the Pan American Games
athletic village posing as journalists.

The two spent a long night drinking with the men, then decided not to
show up for the weigh-in and instead went off with their new
acquaintances, Rigondeaux said.

"We were fighting the next day and we were afraid to return to the villa
because we had eaten and we were afraid of losing because of weight,
which in boxing is such a grave penalty that we went with them,"
Rigondeaux said.

The pair said that after several days, they decided to return to Cuba on
their own and sneaked away from those around them to call Brazilian police.

They insisted they rejected numerous offers by Brazilian authorities to
apply for political asylum. Brazilian lawmakers plan to investigate
their deportation to ensure the boxers were not sent back to Cuba
against their will.

Upon returning to the island, Rigondeaux and Lara spent more than two
days in government guests houses. Rigondeaux was then released to his
apartment in Havana, while Lara traveled to his hometown in the eastern
province of Guantanamo.

Fidel Castro said the pair was finished with Cuba's national team and
that officials were considering pulling out of the boxing world
championships in Chicago in October to prevent defections.

Lara said he was offered $138,000 and said the men "kept saying
constantly that in Germany we would be millionaires and we could be
together with the three who left in Venezuela."

Last year, Cuban Olympic boxing champions Yan Barthelemy, Yuriolski
Gamboa and Odlanier Solis abandoned the team during a trip to practice
in Venezuela. They fled to Colombia and then signed contracts with
German promoters in Miami.

Rigondeaux and Lara, both in their 20s, said they hope to salvage their
boxing careers.

"We have the right to make mistakes and see if they give us a new
opportunity," Lara said.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/08/09/bc.box.cubanboxers.ap/index.html?eref=si_more