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Havana, December 11 (RHC) – Arlen López (80 kg) won bronze today, and Cuba said goodbye with that single medal to the International Boxing Association World Championship in Dubai 2025.
The two-time Olympic champion lost 0-5 to Uzbek Javokhir Ummataliev, the reigning world champion from the tournament organised last September by World Boxing.
It wasn’t a good showing from the Cuban star, who, despite finishing stronger, fell short against the Asian champion and 2022 junior world leader.
This was Arlen’s second medal in these competitions, following his victory in Doha in 2015, a year before he won his initial Olympic gold medal, which he repeated in Tokyo in 2020 and took third place in Paris in 2024.
His teammates in Dubai fell in the quarterfinals. They will return home without medals: Giorvis Salfrán (51 kg), five-time world champion Julio César La Cruz (92 kg), and Fernando Arzola (+92 kg), runner-up in Tashkent in 2023.
This means that for the second time, Cuba has finished an elite world competition without a title, having also failed to win one at the World Boxing Championships, where they fielded eight competitors and earned three bronze medals.
