Michel López

Michel López Núñez (born November 5, 1976 in Pinar del Río ) is a former Cuban super heavyweight boxer . He is the brother of the wrestler Mijaín López .

Career

His first international success was winning the Junior World Heavyweight Championship in Istanbul in 1994 , where he defeated the Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko on points in the final .

In the 1990s, the southpaw in Cuba was long in the shadow of Alexis Rubalcaba , who beat him several times. Only when he ended his career in 2002 did Pedro Carrión and López initially become the international boxers of the class. So he did not get a chance at amateur world championships: in 1997 and 1999 Rubalcaba, 2001 and 2003 Carrión and 2005 Olympic champion Odlanier Solís was the Cuban representative in the highest weight class.

He was allowed to take part in the Pan American Games for the first time in 2003 and finished second, losing the final against the American Jason Estrada .

In 2004 he took part in the Olympic Games in Athens and defeated the Uzbek Rustam Saidov (18-13), his weak rival Estrada (21-7) before he was defeated by the unknown Egyptian Mohamed Aly (16-18) and won bronze .

At the Chemistry Cup he finished second in 2005, in the semifinals he managed a first-round knockout against Steffen Kretschmann , in the final he lost on points against the Lithuanian Jaroslawas Jaksto. In 2006 López won the Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena . When Solís was promoted to the super heavyweight division, he had to fear that, despite a balanced record (3-3) against Solís, he would no longer be used, which became obsolete after his escape in 2006. However, he lost in January 2007 at the national championships in the final against the young Robert Alfonso , who ousted him from the national team and relegated to second place at the championships in January 2008. Michel López then withdrew from active sport.

Web links

• Michel López in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )