In the temple of the Sumo, the Kokukigan Arena, Levite an incontenable type.
Despite the cut in his left eyelid, Enmanuel Reyes Pla challenges who is put in front of him.
“Now we have Julius left. To tear up head, it does not matter if it is from Cuba or is not from Cuba. Let’s go for all, I came for my gold and the one who puts on top of the ring, it is going to fall,” proclaims,
With the safety in himself he has just touched a giant.
Seconds before, the Prophet, with a brilliant combination, has knocked down Vassiliy Levit in the second round, a husky kazajo that presumed from being silver in the past river games.
It happened to him as Foreman, who claimed that he never had the chance to talk too much about the ring: “For when I start to know a guy, everything is over.”
“It was a very technical combat, I went out to look for my fight, to put my rhythm. He cut me, but I did not give importance. Here we came to war. Then I made a good connection, there the man fell and went to finish it,” he describes
Without greater vanagloria.
He wrote Norman Mailer that “Boxing offers a profession to men who otherwise perhaps commit murders through the streets.”
But in Cuba, it is much more than an outlet for criminals.
It is also a way to escape poverty.
And up to a culture.
Reyes Pla was one of those promises of the best school in the world since he began at six years in Havana Natal.
But he found all closed tracks.
“He was the second best and that is a problem,” he says a member of the Caribbean delegation, amazed by the deployment of which was once the compatriot of him.
Because the prophet, who call him, now fight for another flag.
He left his life to arrive in Spain to meet with his family.
“Now my country is Spain and I want to give the victory to Spain, it has given it to me everything, we are going to go out with everything to defend the flag of Spain,” he says when he asked about the motivation of his Friday Final Combat.
Against Julio César La Cruz, the ‘Shadow’, Olympic Champion at -81 kilos in Rio, a Púgil with Tyson Makers and Mayweather Ways: Dancing with the Low Guard has dizzy for a while before his rival Kenyan.
Only that shock is separated from a medal to Enmanuel.
But Reyes Pla does not fear him, because he knows him well.
“He lost in his day, but was quite a couple, the cross has risen to heavy and is not going to be so fast. Reyes is a born heavyweight, he will win at speed and comes with everything, with a lot of desire and lots of hunger
. He motivates him to be Cuban, because there they were holding him there, “explains Rafa Lozano, the coach that was found a few years ago with a diamond that he intended to make the leap to professionalism.
“I talked to him and convinced him that he entered the national team,” he admits.
Even though Enmanuel did not even have any nationality yet.
The peritude of him to escape from Cuba was those given for the script of a movie.
To his family’s claim, held in La Coruña, and with the blockade that supposed to his pugilistic career the competition with Erislandy Savón, Bronze in Rio 2016, began a journey with an uncertain destination in 2016. Reyes Pla, who became a national subcampeon
On the island, he found a good bureaucratic block in Moscow first to be able to enter the European Union.
With fear of the consequences, to be arrested for not having the role papers, he spent four months locked on a floor next to his cousin.
When he managed to leave, there were still several stations of passage, no simple.
He traveled to Austria, where he requested political asylum and was two months interned in a refugee center.
Afterwards, I walk towards Spain, he was arrested in Germany when he was trying to pass the border with France.
The German authorities sent him to a detention center for migrants, where he spent some time before they sent him back to Austria.
He finally decided to risk and take a direct flight to Barcelona.
At last he was able to meet with his family in the summer of 2017. “Months jumping across borders”, fitting the blows of life, seeing as the promising career of him passed ahead.
“Everything was a sacrifice we made, this way to get here. From time to time I say, ‘pussy, this sacrifice was worth it,” he admits now in the entrails of Kokugikan, where until time to reflect on the revolts in his country.
Natal has.
“The situation in Cuba is a bit fucked up, I hope the Cuban people continue to throw forward, claiming their rights, as they say: ‘Homeland and life’. Although it is outside and be Spanish now. I rened from my Cuban nationality. But the Cuban town
I respect it because it is my blood. Let them continue fighting and take their freedom, “he launches.
Once in Galicia, after the balita did not let him escape, in January 2020 he received nationality.
Last June, at last, he got the ticket to Tokyo in a pre-oolympic in which he only lost in the final.
After the fiery draw of the games, he did not rise.
“They say I’m on the side of the picture more difficult but for me it is the best because others are not a danger to me, I am the danger,” he said in the previous one, which Ali.
Because the prophet, like all the great ones, does not bite his tongue: “Work with coach Rafa and with Carlos Peñate is being fulfilled. We came to look for the gold and rival to put us in front of us that we are going to sweep.”
