More than 60 years had to pass for Cuban boxers to fight professionally. The six main figures of the Cuban team will participate in at least four professional events in 2022, after the Cuban Boxing Federation signed an agreement with the Golden Ring Promotions company. It is also hoped by both organizations that the boxers can join the four existing rankings in international boxing organizations. The Cuban school is one of the most awarded in the Olympic context in this sport, with triple Olympic gold medal winners such as Teófilo Stevenson and Félix Savón.
"Es una noticia histórica, definitivamente es algo que nos llena de ilusión. El boxeo cubano ha tenido una gran representación con grandes campeones cuando sí había boxeo profesional ahí. La exportación de talento con Ultiminio Ramos y Mantequilla Nápoles, en la época moderna, mantiene campeones de gran nivel. Con esta apertura será una nueva era del boxeo mundial."
Thus, boxers of the stature of Andy Cruz and Julio Cesar la Cruz could face another type of boxing and show their full potential in the ring. The closest the Cuban boxers have come to a professional circuit was in their participation in the World Series of Boxing, a semi-professional event where they fought five rounds and without a head guard. The Cubans won three of the five series in which they participated. This news has been received by the boxing world with great expectation as reflected in the words of the president of the World Boxing Council, Mauricio Sulaimán:
"It is historic news, it is definitely something that fills us with illusion. Cuban boxing has had a great representation with great champions when there was professional boxing there. The export of talent with Ultiminio Ramos and Mantequilla Napoles, in the modern era, maintained champions of great level. With this opening will be a new era of world boxing."
The island also has world champions at the professional level who decided to make their career away from the protection of the Cuban Federation. Cases like Guillermo Rigondeaux, who also has a couple of Olympic gold medals, Yuriorksi Gamboa, the most recent, Yordenis Ugas who beat the legend Manny Pacquiao for the title and an endless list of boxers who have put the name of Cuba on high. The non-professional Cuban boxer who came closest to fighting on a professional card was the mythical Teofilo Stevenson who was about to fight the legend of the sport, Muhammad Ali, but the terms and conditions for the fight never came to fruition and only remained in what could have been. In short, this agreement is a great step forward for the development of this sport and even more so when amateur boxing is involved in multiple corruption scandals and its participation in the upcoming Olympic Games is in real danger.