AFTER A surprising setback earlier this year at the Olympic Games, when they won only silver and bronze medals, Cuban boxers stormed back to the top last week when their eight boxers won six gold and two silver medals at the inaugural International Boxing Association (AIBA) World Cup in Moscow.

This was the first time that amateur boxers were allowed to fight for prize money by the AIBA, and all the gold medal winners took home US$10,000 each.

Silver-medal winners earned US$5,000 and the two bronze medal winners in each division, US$2,500 each.

The Cuban boxers, therefore, pocketed US$70,000.

Russia, who had 10 boxers in the championships, finished second in the medal haul with three gold, one silver and five bronze, for total prize money of US$47,000.

Special tournament

This special end-of-year tour-nament saw the eight leading amateur boxers in the world in the 11 weight classes competing against each other in this historic event.

They earned their places based on their performances in the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Cham-pionships and the 2008 Olympic Games. Eighty-eight boxers from 37 countries participated.

The two Cubans who lost in the finals were Yampier Hernandez, who bowed to the slick Phillipine 48kg veteran Harry Tanamor, and Hernandez Laffita, who lost to Russia's Misha Aloyan in the 51 kg division. The Cuban champions in the heavyweight and super-heavyweight divisions had easy passages to their gold medals as their opponents suffered injuries in the semi-finals and were not able to fight in the finals.

Moving to professional

The lone boxer from the English-speaking Caribbean, welterweight Toureano Johnson, from the Bahamas, did not make it past the quarter-finals as he was beaten by Germany's Jack Culcay-Keth.

Johnson, who is the leading Caribbean prospect in amateur boxing, is now giving serious thought to moving up to the professional ranks and a decision from him is expected within the next few weeks.