The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7848   Message #1653146
Posted By: Joe Richman
21-Jan-06 - 08:26 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: We Didn't Know (Paxton) & protest songs
Subject: RE: protest song from the 60s (We Didn't Know - Pa
Earlier in this thread, someone said that Fidel Castro outlawed boxing in Cuba. Not true. He outlawed professional boxing for prize money, but continued a boxing program for "amateur" athletics (i.e. the Olympics, etc.).

Here is a quote from an internet history of Cuban boxing:


"Like all Communist regimes, Cuba scouted talent at a young age and channeled potential athletes into state-sponsored athletic schools. "I didn't choose boxing," said Cuban defector Juan Carlos Gomez in a recent interview. "They chose it for me in Cuba. I wanted to become a baseball player. That was always my dream. But, you know, in Cuba you are not allowed to make your own decisions." "

Teofilo Stevenson was a well-known Cuban Heavyweight amateur who dominated the amatuer sport back in the '70s. So Fidel's Cuba certainly is no pious anti-boxing regime.   Boxing, like all sport in Cuba, serves the state.

Joe