Correa: Another Giant Who Departs

Cuban boxing is in mourning again with the sudden loss of Emilio Correa, who died this Monday at age 70.

Still without recovering from the loss of Rolando Garbey, who passed away last December, the boxing rink says goodbye to another great boxer from Cuban boxing, the first to hold all the titles awarded by the former International Boxing Association (IBA).

Correa, born in Santiago de Cuba, won the gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and was also crowned champion at the 1974 Havana World Championship and the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali.

But beyond detailing his achievements or his devastating punch and courage in the ring, today we want to remember him in a more intimate way.

The 2008 Playa Girón National Boxing Championship was at its best, in Holguín, and on one of the night fights we see Correa go out towards the group of journalists. Let’s remember that he was a member of the national technical team, a responsibility he defended for several years after retirement from active sports.

He arrived somewhat upset asking who was the journalist who had written about his son recently. Of course, the words about Junior were not the most flattering, after having been eliminated early in the fight, a circumstance that was quite common in those Playa Girón that were held in mid-January, when the members of the concentrated elite arrived with little training after the end of the year holidays, while the provincial fighters went all in, in search of securing a position at the Finca del Wajay, and that was their main event.

We all looked at each other and, part joking, part serious, we said: “What's going to happen to him.”

But none of that, they started talking and I don't know if he was completely convinced, but at least respectful of the journalist's criteria, the Senior left calmly.

For those of us who are parents, we know what it means to feel like your children are being attacked, and even more so in a case like this, where the child is following your footsteps and we are talking about something that we know in depth because it’s our profession. Despite his wounded father's pride, Correa Sr. did not lose his temper and that magnifies his figure much more. I wanted to leave you this anecdote as a small sample of the human being, beyond the boxer and coach.

By the way, months later Correa Junior became the first son of an Olympic champion boxer who also reached a final in Beijing 2008, where he won silver, after an unfair referee decision against the British James De Gale, who defeated him 16 points for 14.

They would have been the first father-son pair to be Olympic champions in this sport.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff