Anthony Echemendia - On How the Cuban Wrestling and Sports Dynasty Works | RETalkPodcast | Episode 14 - Real Estate Talk Podcast with Jesus Castanon | RETalkPodcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
First and foremost, you guys are probably wondering
why we're doing a wrestlingpodcast today.
All right, the story, the storybehind this, is I became a huge
wrestling fan.
I grew up playing basketball.
You guys would have told me youknow, out of a hundred sports,
what sport to pick?
As a kid I would havedefinitely wrestling would have

(00:25):
been number 100.
I was not a fan of wrestling.
That one thing led to the otherand my son started wrestling at
age four.
Initially we started doingjujitsu.
My son started wrestling at agefour.
I fell in love with wrestling asa sport.
I regretted big time notwrestling as a kid.

(00:46):
I think it's a beautiful sport.
I think it's everything aboutit.
How difficult it is.
I've seen what it does to kidsas far as their self-confidence
and everything.
Also, I'm a very proud Cuban.
I came to this country when Iwas three years old.
Actually, my 40th anniversarybeing in this country was a

(01:10):
couple days ago, may 9th, soit's kind of fitting.
So there was one interview thatI saw with Yoel Romero and Joe
Rogan in the Joe Rogan showwhere they talked about and it's
something I've always beeninterested in why is it that
Cuba produces the amount ofathletes in general Boxers,
wrestlers, baseball players it'sjust a powerhouse of sports.

(01:34):
So I've always wondered what itis that produces this type of
athlete.
Now, obviously, my two favoritesports, or my three favorite
sports in reality, are wrestling, boxing and MMA as a whole.
So today we're going to have awrestler, anthony Echimendia,

(01:57):
which has a wonderful, wonderfulstory, and we're going to have
a boxer to understand and toexplain exactly what it is, that
the Cuban system, how it isthat the Cuban system produces
these types of athletes.
So Anthony is, right now, theperfect person to really explain
that, because he started as akid in Cuba wrestling.

(02:19):
Actually, you started ingymnastics, correct, anthony?
Yeah, you started in gymnastics, switched over to wrestling.
He actually left Cuba, defectedCuba.
Beautiful story on flowwrestling, which is another
reason why I'm doing the podcast.
I think there's a lot of thingsthat I wanted to hear.
So, listen, because of Alexis,which is a friend of mine, I was

(02:43):
able to get together withAnthony and if I'm able to ask
him these questions, here we areto ask them.
So there's a lot of things thatI wanted to basically know
about the trip over here.
So, first thing I want to know,anthony, is when is it that?
What age did you startwrestling and what age do
usually kids in Cuba startwrestling?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, I started wrestling when I was six years
old, but almost all the kids inCuba, they started wrestling at
the youngest age, like whenthey're six years old.
Seven years old, that's theright age, to you know, to start
wrestling.
Right, because I.
My first four was gymnastics.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
So you started what gymnastics, at what age?

Speaker 2 (03:28):
I started gymnastics when I was four years old by the
influence of my mom,interesting Because she was a
gymnast.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Your mom was a gymnast in Cuba.
Okay, Okay, go ahead.
I didn't know that.
So now I heard that kids arenot really allowed to start
wrestling wrestling until likearound eight years old, nine
years old, in Cuba.
Is that accurate?
Is that true?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, that's true, like in Cuba.
We got like a different system.
Yeah, we got a different systemIn Cuba.
Usa and Cuba got way differentsystem.
Like in Cuba, when you startwrestling, they teach you
gymnastics first.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Right, that's what I heard.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
And yeah, gymnastics, how to move from the mat.
And when you start getting theskills, the good skills, you're
getting stronger.
They teach you the wrestlingtechniques.
So they they don't teach youthe wrestling techniques right
away.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Until when they get you strong At what?
Age do they start teaching youwrestling?

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Like, if you start wrestling a four years old that
you're going to spend one yeargetting stronger.
They're going to teach you howto move from the mat gymnastics
and then, when you spend a yearin wrestling, they start
teaching you the wrestlingtechniques, wrestling move, and

(04:49):
you're going to start learningabout wrestling.
But first they're going toteach you how to move, how you
know they're going to get youstronger and then you're going
to start learning aboutwrestling.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Okay, so basically they make you an athlete first
and then they make you awrestler, basically, yeah, Right
, so at what age?
So you start wrestling?
From what I understand, fromwhat I'm hearing and these
stories usually come from, a lotof them come from Alexi's when
we're there, because his son andmine they wrestle together.

(05:23):
So when we're on the sidetalking, I'm always asking him
questions and everything.
So, from what I understand,there's different provinces.
There's different provinces,right, so everybody wrestles for
their province, correct?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
So they're.
It's like a state here in USA,but we call it different in Cuba
, right, because it's a smallcountry.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Okay, so is there tournaments?
How does the tournament work?
So, if you're under, okay, sofirst let me say so.
At what age does it becomeserious?
At eight, nine years old, dothey become actual wrestlers,
wrestlers where you startactually wrestling.
Is it eight, nine?

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Yeah, when you turn nine years old, you start
competing at the national leveland at the state level first,
and if you qualify to wrestle inthe national level, you go to
the national tournament andrepresent your state.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
So that's one thing I'm really curious about,
because here in the UnitedStates there's literally a
tournament.
If you want to go to atournament every single weekend,
you could go to a tournamentevery single weekend, and what
we have is this thing calledtrack wrestling.
So track wrestling well, youcould say, all right, well, I'm
going to be in Ohio this weekend, I'm going to go and find a

(06:39):
tournament in Ohio, and then Icould go and see how many kids
are registered in thistournament, how many kids in
what age and what weight, and Icould go ahead and I could know
exactly who my son's going towrestle in another state at any
moment and literally everysingle weekend.
There's different nationalsthat have different levels of

(07:02):
importance, but there's I don'tknow, 20, 30 national
tournaments that they callnational tournaments every year.
So how do the tournaments work?
How many times does a kid let'ssay the kid's eight years old
how many times does a kidwrestle?
And then, are you representingyour academy or are you
representing your province?

Speaker 2 (07:24):
You're representing your province.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Your province.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Like, if you're going to compete at the national
level, you're going to representyour province, you're going to
represent your province.
Yeah, if you're going towrestle at the province level,
you're going to represent yourhometown, Like I was born in
Kauai 1, it's a small city, likeI don't know how to say it in

(07:49):
English like small town.
I was representing my hometown,competing at the province level
.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
So at the province level, you're representing your
hometown, you're going andeverybody's wearing their shirts
and everybody's representingthat, their actual and what is
the best, where do the bestwrestlers, kid youth wrestlers,
come out of?
Now in Cuba, like what?

Speaker 2 (08:12):
province what province, I think, I don't know.
Like Santiago, cuba has a lotof good guys always.
And Havana, pina del Rio.
Like Pina del Rio, they don'tgive you, like they don't win, a

(08:33):
lot of national tournaments,tournaments, but I don't know.
They have a system that when aguy goes to the national team,
that guy for sure is going towin world and Olympic titles for
sure.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
They don't have a lot of athletes in the national
team.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
But when a guy from Pina del Rio goes to the
national team, oh my God, thoseguys win world and Olympic
titles for sure.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
And what do you think the difference is?
Is it the coaching?
Is it a cultural thing?
What do you think?
What do you think it is?

Speaker 2 (09:08):
I think it's the base because, like in Cuba in
general we got like the samesystem, but other province they
like they try to get theirathletes stronger at the
youngest age, like they startlifting weights when they're 10,
I don't know, 12 years old, andI don't think that's right.

(09:28):
Yeah, so I haven't liftedweight in my entire life.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
That's another thing that I've which is very.
If anybody has been onAnthony's Instagram, you should
go.
I mean, I actually saw apicture of you when you were
like 12 years old or 13 yearsold man.
You look like a man.
That's crazy.
And you're saying you neverlifted weights ever, never.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
I don't know.
My strength is different, likewhen I'm wrestling.
People say, I don't know howyou're so strong, but I go to
the weight room and 120 poundscan lift more than me.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
It's weird.
I mean, maybe it's thetechnique, how you lift, and
maybe it's my technique.
My wrestling technique isdifferent.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
And what.
So you're just doing this basedon push-ups, pull-ups, squats.
What are gymnastics?
What is it?
Because here's another thing Iknow what a weight room looks
like here in the United States,okay, and I'm sure you've been
to like Platinum Fitness andyou've been to LA Fitness and
all those and I've also seenAside from being born in Cuba,

(10:36):
I've gone back several times.
I'm very interested in theathletics and I've always been
interested in how again, how theCuban system works with the
athletes.
I know that they don't have thebest facilities.
Actually, my uncle was thediving coach for many years for
Cuba and I would always ask himthe stories and how things work
there and everything.
But I've seen the facilitiesthere and they're not the best

(10:57):
facilities in the world.
I would probably say thatalmost every country in the
world has better trainingfacilities as far as equipment
is concerned, but yet Cuba isalways up there in the medals,
specifically in combat sportsand in baseball.
So what is it that you did inparticular?
How do you get that strong ifyou don't have the weights and

(11:18):
you don't have the system?

Speaker 2 (11:20):
I mean you can have the best weight room in the
world.
You can have everything.
You know what I mean.
You need to love what you'redoing.
And I mean Cubans got I don'tknow.
We think different.
We think in a different way.
We're very close with ourfamilies and we're always

(11:44):
fighting to get better, better,richer, gravel family.
That's how, that's why Cubansare good, that's why we were
champions.
We were born being champions.
I mean, like we got a differentsystem and I don't know.
I would love to share with youguys the Cuban system, but you

(12:08):
know they put weird names toevery single exercise that you
do.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
But is it, but is it?
It would consist of pull-upsand push-ups, it's all body
weight.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yeah, it's all body weight.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
You're not, because you know I've also seen that.
You know you have these weightrooms, though they'll have
concrete, you know, instead of adumbbell they'll have, you know
, concrete they'll make adumbbell.
But it's not necessarily thatYou're saying that all your
strength came from body weightin particular.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, all my strength came from body weight.
Yeah, right, yeah, we got a lotof Like.
We have to get used to what wehave.
Like we don't have the bestweight room but we have
different stuff.
Like, if we don't have the Idon't know the place, we build
our own place and we do what wecan do.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Right.
So Right now, in thisquarantine, it doesn't affect
you at all.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
It doesn't affect me, I got a lot on my.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
Right, you don't need a gym at all Right, I don't
need it.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, I got a lot of ways to work out a lot of
different ways, and I keepmyself ready the whole time.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
And you guys.
So let's go back to theprovince thing.
So, because my brain's goingina million different directions
.
So you start the youth program,you start with the gymnastics,
you start with all thecalisthenics and to prepare you
as an athlete.
Then, around nine years old,when is it that you guys start

(13:38):
going to the Elida?
How do you say Elida, thesports?

Speaker 2 (13:42):
school.
Yeah, like the sports school.
The sports school, hey, the guy, the sports school.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
So E-I-D-E correct.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah, e-i-d-e.
Yeah, which stands for.
We can call it a sports school,like that's what it means In
Spanish.
That's what it means E-daymeans sports school.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
So the sports school.
When is it?
How young do people startliving?
Do they send the people?
So it's like a boarding schoolfor everybody here in the United
States.
It's basically you start, theypick you out.
So you start winning provinces,you start winning the
tournaments in the provinces.
They pick you out.
They say, all right, well, thisguy's going to be good, let's
send them to the sports school,to Elida correct.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, it's like, for example, if you go to the state
tournament here in USA and thetop three guys in every weight
class, they recruit all the topthree guys in every weight class
and they send it to the sportsschool.
How many Like if you won?
Okay, if you won.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Okay, and that's at nine, nine or ten.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, nine years old.
I entered the sports schoolwhen I was nine years old, when
you were nine years old, okay,so I?

Speaker 1 (14:50):
now.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
And I had yeah, I had to leave there.
Stay there, Right, I was nineyears old.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
That's what I was going at, because I also think
that a lot of it like my son'snine years old right now.
If I had to say, all right, I'mgoing to send them to a place
and you're only seeing yourparents once a week.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, you only see your parents in the weekends.
In the weekends, yeah, and thenSunday, and then one day you
have to go back to the sportsschool.
And it depends how far you aretoo, because if you're really
far from Elida, then you got totake buses and you got to take
trains and you got to take oh no, if you leave too far from the
sports school, you have to yougo home every 15 days, because

(15:32):
every 15 days they like, theysend buses to every single city
where the kids live.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Right, okay, interesting, right.
So again, I have a son, alexishas a son that wrestles to, so I
it's hard for me to say,alright, you know, hey, I'm
gonna send them, I'm gonna sendthem over to school.
I'm sure it's a very difficultdecision for the parents.
I'm sure it's extremelydifficult for a kid to be like
alright, well, now I'm, now I'mgonna be put in a, in a place

(16:02):
with a bunch of athletes, right?
So the ages from there, they,you live together with kids that
are what?

Speaker 2 (16:07):
from nine years old to, like what, 16 years old or
any age, any age from nine yearsold to, like 20, 20 years old,
because, like, after, after youGraduated high school, like I
mean, you know, we got adifferent system in Cuba, I
don't know.
We don't call high school, yeah, we call Fred, fred University,

(16:29):
I'm right.
So when you graduate from FredUniversity, I'm and if you want
to keep doing your sport, youcan go to the, to the academic.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
Allah Right.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
I'm a little bit of a , so I was sure to look at him
so so you go to the.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Right, you go to the specific sports academy of
whatever sport that is, thatyou're gonna that, you're gonna
that, you're gonna pick, you'regonna be a wrestler or boxer and
you're gonna go to thatspecific academy.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
That is.
That is a lot of differentnames, like from nine years old
to 22 years old, and it's hard,man, think about your, your nine
years old son, living with abunch of big kids around, yeah,
living a bunch of maniacs, guys,you know I'm going to take a
shower.
Your nine years old and you'regonna have to take a shower with

(17:23):
, with the 18 years old kidRight and it's hard, and here
and here.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
In in the in the United States there's, you know,
the whole big thing on bullyingand and you know if the kids
gonna get a bully and they'regonna pick on the kid.
If somebody's gonna take away,take your lunch money or take
your milk at school or whatever,I'm sure if you're living in a
sports school You're gonna seethat for sure in Cuba.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, you're gonna have to learn how to defend
yourself.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
You have to learn how to defend yourself, not only
wrestle, but you gotta learn howto fight.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
I Like I, you know, I couldn't enjoy when I was a kid
.
I was when I was when I startedmy my sport career.
My dad, you know I have a bigbrother and my big brother was a
good wrestler but he couldn'tget it.
He couldn't get to the nationalteam.

(18:14):
And when I told my dad, a, Iwant to be a wrestler like you,
it's, my dad was a wrestler.
Okay, and I want to be awrestler like you and like my,
like my big brother or my dad,you know, my, my dad know about
rest, yeah, okay, yeah, we'regonna get you to the high level.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
Right, he knew that you had what it takes and he's
like all right, well, listen,you know I'm doing this for my
son, I know it's gonna be thebest thing for him and he makes
that decision, but it's.
It's not an easy decision.
You're still young and and youdon't see it through his eyes
yet.
You see it through your eyes.
But as a father, it's adifficult, difficult decision
and and and and obviously inyour case it's the right
decision.
I'm sure in some cases it mightnot be.

(18:56):
Some kids, you know, don't makeit.
I'm sure not every kid makes it.
A lot of kids want to come home.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
No man, when one like when you're a nine years old
kid and you go to the school,you know a lot of a lot of kids
quit, yeah, like they don't stayat this poor school.
It's hard, it's hard.
Well, you live in this poorschool, like the bullying, all
that kind of stuff.
You're gonna see that and yourparents are not, that your
parents are not there to helpyou, right?

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, you gotta figure it out and I also think
that I think Russia does it thesame way.
Correct, I'm sure Russia.
I think Russia does the samesystem because I think the Cuban
system, from what I understandagain, I'm I'm in love with
wrestling, but I'm new to thewhole wrestling thing.
From what, for the stories thatI'm hearing, the the everything
about sports of Cuba reallycame from Russia.

(19:42):
Is that is that is thateverything?

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yeah, yeah, we got it .
We got there.
Like I say, we got a Cubansystem, but we don't.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
We got the old Russian system right, the old
school Russian system, because Ilast time I went to Cuba, I
stayed in La Marina, hemingwayright, and there was like 30
Russian boxers there.
There was a whole, the wholeRussian team was there staying.
I guess there were these,either a tournament or something
like that.
So, yeah, it's.

(20:12):
You know when you look atRussia, yeah, and, and you know
when you look at the Olympics,you know Russia even has, you
know, a big part in Cuba winning, winning these tournaments.
Because, again, we are, it isthe rush.
How often does Russia go toCuba?
Now a?

Speaker 2 (20:27):
Lot.
I don't, I have no idea, Idon't think they go a lot.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
But you guys go over there.
I think they rush the Cuba goesto Russia a lot.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
We don't have money to travel and go to every
tournament in the world.
Yeah, we say in Cuba, cuba,save them.
Wanted to the big tournament?
Yeah, world championships,olympic, yeah, what a cop.
But we don't go to everywhere,are we, you know?
Now, that's another reason Ihad to leave Cuba.
Yeah, yeah.
I would love to represent Cuba.

(20:56):
Man, I love you, I love myCuban people.
Yeah, we're a big family.
People, sometimes people oh,you left Cuba.
You know you didn't like you,or not?

Speaker 1 (21:05):
No, no, no, it's not the case I wish I could be.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
I could be.
You are now with my man.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
I'm looking for a better Way by the way, your
tattoo that you got is genius.
That's a best tattoo I've everseen.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
It's though it's a United States, yeah, yeah yeah,
best tattoo ever, man, that is.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
That is genius, that is a genius idea because it's
both man, it's both your.
Your listen, I'm Cuban Americanand and I'm definitely proud of
that, so it's, it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful thing, okay,
so let's get back to okay, soyou're, you're nine years old,
when, okay, you're nine yearsold, you, how many tournaments
do you start going to?
Because, again, you know, Ithink the kids here go to too

(21:43):
many tournaments.
I think it's just too much andyou got to be careful with it.
Like with my son.
Right now, I'm like man, Ican't do every single tournament
.
My son might, my son's, nineyears old might have 400 matches
.
You know what I mean and that'sand that's right, and that's me
being Conservative, me saying,well, I can't go to every single
tournament.
There might be kids that have700 matches.

(22:03):
You know now, when we go totournaments here I mean he's,
he's been again at eight, ateight years old, six years old
there's been brackets that hehad 30 kids in it.
You know what I'm saying.
So those are the things thatthat's what I want to see.
The difference that.
So in Cuba, when you go to oneof these tournaments, how many
kids do you have in the back?
How many tournaments are youdoing a year as a nine-year-old

(22:24):
Right, and and how many kids doyou usually see in the bracket?
How does that work?

Speaker 2 (22:29):
Now, when you're a nine-year-old kid, I mean you,
you're gonna go in here, you'regonna Participate in four
tournaments total fourtournaments a year total four
tournaments total.
Wow, yeah, maybe you you can dothe coaches do a couple duals,
right, like a Problems againstanother problem.

(22:50):
Yeah, but you're gonna do justtwo matches, you know right.
So you're not gonna betournament, like here in USA,
and you're gonna see 50 kids,100 kids, yeah how many kids?

Speaker 1 (23:02):
how many kids you have?
It far go like a hundred andsomething 130 hundred 128 kids.
That was the first thing younoticed, right, yeah, so alright
.
So, and how many kids in thebracket and in and one of those
turns?
So it's four tournaments a year, and how many kids in the

(23:22):
bracket?

Speaker 2 (23:24):
like think about it.
We we got 16 Travins in Cuba,and so just one kid can
represent the province.
Okay, just one kid, so 16 kidsin your bracket.
So you're looking at format andsometimes, sometimes they don't
take your weight loss so right.

(23:44):
Sometimes you you're gonna see14, 13 kids in your bracket.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
So you're looking at yeah right, so that makes three
matches.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
Three matches, you know if you win them all, if you
win them all well, I mean, likehere in USA they have to, they
have to make like four, six, sixgroups.
Yeah, in Cuba they make thattwo groups.
Okay, so it's a small bracket,right.
So you're gonna do like, if youhave six kids in your back and
you're in your group, you'regonna do, you're gonna wrestle

(24:12):
five matches, okay, then you'regonna wrestle against the second
.
I Don't know.
Like we have a weird System, isit single?

Speaker 1 (24:22):
single elimination or double elimination, because
here what one of all doubleelimination Okay yeah, double
because my son competes injujitsu two, and one of the
things that I hate about jujitsuis single elimination, right.
So if you go there there wasone time we went to um, flew to
California, flew to California,loses his first match, that's it
.
They're going home, you know.
So what I like about wrestlingis that, like in his case, we

(24:45):
went to Tulsa one time, hisfirst tournament, he, he was
nervous, he lost his first matchbut he was able all the way to
go, all the way to true second.
So it allows you to really, youknow you could lose one match
and still and still make it.
So that's one thing Idefinitely like about wrestling
over over jujitsu.
So so you're looking at, at nineyears old, you're doing four
tournaments, maybe three or fourmatches.

(25:05):
So what's four times four?
Again, I'm a good amount.
16, right?
No, what's four times four?
Damn, I just blanked out onthat.
Is it 16?
All right?
So you're looking at 16, 20matches in a year.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Right, yeah, I thought all I like total maybe
25, 30.
But I mean like I I disagreewhen, like when, when they make
all the all those bigtournaments for little kids.
Yeah because you're gonna havetime to compete a lot.
I Think that we should you know, I don't know, I'm not a big, I

(25:44):
don't know, maybe I don't knowtoo much about wrestling, but
that's it.
This is my point.
That's how I see.
That's how I think you can getbetter, yeah, wrestling.
I think that when you startwrestling, you should care about
how how you got you're gonnaprepare yourself, are how you
can get stronger, are you gonnahow you get you can get faster,

(26:09):
how you can get better skills inwrestling, and then, when
you're 10, 11 or 12 years old,start competing a lot right.
But when you're eight years old,nine, ten years old, you don't
need to To be wrestling aroundthe country, around the country,
every single weekend.
How you're not gonna have timeto prepare, norman.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah, no, and I'm not .
I'm not disagreeing with you,it's, it's really.
You know, I'm new to the sportas a dad, I'm new to the sport
period, I'm new to the sport asa dad, and and and again, I'm
just thinking out loud here, youknow.
So, when you first start, youhear, though, this tournament
and that tournament.
And then you know, in this case, and in my case, you know my,
my son's, you know he's prettydamn good, he starts winning.

(26:50):
And then you're like, well,let's go to, this tournament
wins that one.
And then by the time you knowyou've traveled the whole damn
country, you know, and, but nowI'm starting, you know, and now
I'm like, all right, well,listen, man, you know I gotta go
to Tulsa, I got, maybe I gottago to super 32, you know I gotta
go to, you know, maybe the, theFreestyle and Greco nationals,
and you start picking, andthat's where I'm at as a dad

(27:12):
right now.
You know you start picking theones that you know I'm back.
You know, really, basically towhat you're saying, we got to be
a lot more selective with thetournament.
That's me, that's me, I, I'vemade a decision to not start
going, not go to every singledamn tournament.
You know, and again, that'spart of the growth as a dad and
and an understanding, and andagain hearing it from you and
and the way they do it overthere.

(27:32):
Obviously it makes sense, youknow, and obviously it works.
So All right.
So when you're you're in school,you're nine years old, we
talked about the tournaments, soyou wake up in the morning.
What time do you wake up in themorning at nine years old?
You're by yourself.
You're not seeing your family,you're only seeing them on the
weekends.
You wake up in the morning.
What happens?
What do you do first?

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Oh, we wake up at like at 6 am in the morning or
five something, 545 in the, inthe school we go to, we have
breakfast and and then, likethat is two different times,
like the Two you're gonna readyou're gonna practice for two

(28:13):
years and then they switch.
You're gonna go, you're goingto school in the morning and
practicing on the Two yearspracticing in the morning, and
then to years Going to classesin the morning and practicing.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, so you're, but you're wrestling.
It's wrestling in the morningand wrestling in the afternoon,
or is it a straight toconditioning and then wrestling?
What is it exactly?

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Well, my coach works crazy.
The normal system is like ifyou have to practice in the
morning, you're going topractice in the morning.
You finish practice before 12,go take a shower, get ready, go
to school.
We don't go to school.
We don't spend a long time inschool, so we go to school from

(29:04):
12 to 5 hours.
12 to 5, okay, yeah, and thenafter, after.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
So sorry, I'm starting to rub Hold on.
So you wake up at six o'clockin the morning, you wrestle, you
train for how much?
From 6 am you eat breakfast.
You start training what atseven.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, yeah, you start training at like seven.
You're gonna maybe sometimesyou're gonna have two, two
practice in the morning.
So you're gonna startpracticing at seven the
conditioning section and thenthe wrestling section.
Okay, conditioning, you'regonna practice at seven, you

(29:40):
finish at 8, 30, and then youstart your second practice at 10
.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Okay, and you finish before 12.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
You go half lunch, take a shower, get ready for
school, go to school, to schoolfor five hours and then after
school go back to the wrestlingroom train.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
So what time?
So what time?
So you finish school at five.
You used to train in theafternoon, let's say at six
o'clock.
So what time?
Yeah, you start like 5 30 afterschool and then so finish
school, finish school, go changeand go straight to practice.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
Yeah, like six.
You finish at 6, 30, sevensometimes 6, 37.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Then you eat, go to sleep.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Then you eat and go to sleep, or go to the dorms and
go out with your friends,whatever you want, see, and
here's the thing.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
So I understand that, that that kids now there's,
there is a lot of tournaments,right.
But again, I'm thinking as adad, right.
So one thing that I try tomonitor with my kid is how much
practice, how much time do wespend practicing right?
What?
How much is too much time?
Training, you know?
So it seems like the Cubansystem is is a little bit

(30:54):
different than the in theAmerican system where, all right
, we, there's more tournamentsthan there is practice.
In your case there's.
We're looking at what eighthours of practice a day, six
hours of practice a day.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Oh, I don't know, you're gonna yeah, maybe not,
not every day, like in it.
We don't.
We don't practice that we do.
We do just one practice onWednesday.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Okay, okay, so Wednesday's a like right.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Wednesday's the hardest practice in a week.
It's on Wednesday, but it'sjust one practice, right, like
two hours practice by thehardest.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
A lot of live wrestling.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
A lot of yeah, a lot of live wrestling.
So in a warm up, get ready.
You know, like we don't competea lot in Cuba but we like we
wrestle against each other a lot, right getting ready for the
tournaments.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
Right.
So so in a, in a in a two hourpractice, you might see um, I
don't know, one hour of live,one hour of technique, is that
fair to say?

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, yeah, like.
Uh, we do, like we warm up for20 minutes, then we do some
technique drilling and thenafter a drill, we wrestle.

Speaker 1 (32:05):
I wrestle live for an hour.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
For a million partners wrestling for from this
position.
So it's situational.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
It's really situational, situational
drilling.
So it's situational, live, notjust live on the feet and go
wrestle.
It's.
It's a lot of situational.
You've got the leg and startfrom the leg, basically, yeah
Right, and work your way there,right.
So interesting, interesting,all right, so, um, all right.
So you're nine years old.
At what time?
So at what age do you startcompeting in the junior level,

(32:36):
like at the actual national,where you start taking, when the
team starts going out andcompeting against against other
other other countries?

Speaker 2 (32:45):
at the junior level or senior junior junior.
So junior level from 16 to 18,no, from from 15 years old to 18
years old.
Right, you're a junior.
You're a junior in here in USA.
You from 16 to 20 years old.
You're a unit.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, yeah, they have the cadet.
I always get confused with this.
I wish I had a couple of mybuddies here to help me out with
.
I think it's cadet and and uhyeah, cadet and senior.
Yeah, yeah, Um, so so you.
So you call.
So you go to the province, youcompete in the province, you
compete in the nationals, youwin in the nationals in your
weight class and you getselected to represent your team

(33:27):
and go, start going to othercountries.
What's the first country youwent to to compete?

Speaker 2 (33:31):
I what I want to compete yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
What's the first?

Speaker 2 (33:33):
country I want.
I won the national tournamentsix times and I put a represent
Cuba and I didn't have the money.
I qualified for a lot oftournaments and they didn't have
the money to to go to anywhere.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
So so you're saying that you work I?

Speaker 2 (33:51):
couldn't get the opportunity to represent Cuba at
all.
I went to Guatemala before thejunior Panams for a training
camp and then Now I was, when I,when I left my team right.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
So you're saying that you, so you, you were the top
wrestler in your weight class,your age division, etc.
When six times six, six timenational champ and you and you
were enabled, never able, to goout and and and and, go to these
different Countries and competeand represent your country, not
so all the hard work.
Really, basically, in your mind, you know and I understand

(34:24):
obviously it's like a so what'sthe point of doing this if I'm
work, doing all this hard workand I can't go represent my
country?

Speaker 2 (34:30):
basically, Look, sometimes some people ask me
because I left one match.
I Last, I last one, much inseven years.
Wow competing at the national,at the national level.
I, when I was, I won all thetop, all the national
tournaments.
When I was cadet at the cadetlevel and my first junior year I

(34:54):
lost against a Panam championand then the next year I beat
him 10-0 I mean With Santa.

(35:26):
And then I beat the guy whobeat me when I am my first
junior year.
I beat him and he was comingreally, really strong.
Yeah, he won six nationaltournaments.
No, he won five nationaltournaments and then he didn't

(35:49):
want to rest anymore and I keptresting.
I won my last junior year andthen I went to compete at the
senior level.
Because people are confused hereabout my age, because in Cuba
we got a different system.
In USA you wrestle at thejunior level until you're 20
years old.
In Cuba it doesn't work likethat.

(36:10):
In Cuba you wrestle at thejunior level until you're 18
years old and after 18, you haveto wrestle at the senior level.
So when I would say after, whenI turn 18 years old, I won my
last junior national title and Iwant to wrestle at the senior

(36:30):
level.
And I won the senior nationaltournament Right.

Speaker 1 (36:35):
So, if you would have stayed?
If you would have stayed, youwould have probably gone
represented in the Olympics,right.
In what year I would have beenthis year, pretty much, yeah,
this year Right.
And your dream now is start atOhio State, start wrestling and

(36:56):
then the next Olympics representthe United States, correct?

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Yeah, that's my dream , that's my greatest dream, and
I want to bring my family to USAnow.
I want them to enjoy thiscountry too.
This is the.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Don't make me cry, bro.
Don't make me cry, bro.
Come on, try not to cry.

Speaker 4 (37:16):
You're a beautiful country.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, man, yeah, so all right.
So you start now.
Here's the interesting part.
Now.
So you say to yourself, whendid you start thinking, hey, I
can't do this anymore, I want towrestle at the highest level.
When did you did you start?
When you went to Guatemala?
Did you did that thought comeinto your head when you were in

(37:39):
Guatemala?
Or were you already thinkingabout it when you were in Cuba,
like, hey, man, I gotta get outof here.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
I didn't think about it, because when I was in Cuba
like my family is really closeand I never, never thought about
living my family and living mycountry, my team.
Because I don't know, I loveCuba, I love my Cuban people.

(38:05):
I mean, like when you have afriend in Cuba, that friend is
like your brother.
You can tell because you're aCuban.
You can tell because you're aCuban too.
And so when I went to Guatemala, I love wrestling, that's my
first priority here In my, in mylife, my first priority is

(38:27):
wrestling.
So I went to Guatemala and I sawthat Guatemala had better
conditions than Cuba and I waslike how is this possible?
Like we were one of the bestcountries in the world.
We got one of the best, thebest systems, I don't know.
We don't have conditions, butwe still win the tournaments,

(38:49):
yeah.
And then that was when Istarted thinking about leaving
my team.
Yeah, I wanted to get moreopportunities and I wanted to
shine, I wanted to be, I wantedfor people to get to know who I
am.
You know, because in Cuba youdon't get the opportunity.

(39:09):
You don't get the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
I mean you got to be careful what you say, how you
say it.
Maybe even this interview herewould be very, very difficult if
you, if we were in Cuba, Iwould have to be careful what
questions I ask and how I ask it.
And you got to be careful whatyou say if anything becomes
negative, and and listen, and Iknow it, and I understand it,
and and and it's, it's, you know, it's something that that

(39:34):
people don't.
You know, even though I wasn't,I wasn't, I wasn't raised there
.
You know the stories and thenthe and just the feelings and
the reason why we came to thiscountry.
Listen, alexis, I came to thiscountry on a, on a on a boat,
right.
I came to this country in theMariel boat lift, right.
But my boat was like a 50 footshrimp boat.

(39:57):
Alexis, which is the other facethat you see here, came to this
country on like a 20 foot boatwith like 25 people.
You know.
So, you know it's.
It's one of those things thatthat you don't realize how bad.
You know.
You, you, you people want toleave.
Imagine wanting to leave aplace so bad that you jump in,

(40:21):
like the story.
Alexis has a crazy, crazy,crazy story.
How you know they, they madethe boat.
They made the boat out of wood.
Okay, so just imagine thatbecause I have a boat, I have a
fishing boat, and I'm scared togo on it.
And it's a professional boatwith a, with a beautiful engine,
and it's a brand new boat and Idon't go out too deep because I

(40:42):
get scared.
So imagine making a boat out ofwood.
Um, the engine was a engine wasa Russian tractor.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
It's a Russian tractor.
The heat will die.
Yeah, that's what we used towork in the field, and
everything, yeah.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Right, so so you're making you make a boat out of
wood, okay, um, then you get atractor, a Russian tractor,
which makes it a little bit moreinteresting.
Um and uh, you start tellingpeople, hey, who wants to come?
And all of a sudden you wentfrom.
You went from Cuba to Ecuador,right?

Speaker 3 (41:24):
No, we went from Cuba to Honduras, Honduras right.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
So imagine jumping on a boat, 24, 24 people on a 20
foot boat, um four nights at sea, four nights right Four, no,
ten nights.

Speaker 3 (41:38):
Ten nights at sea, ten nights at sea, ten nights
because that, that engine, we,we, we, we kept the engine we
put new.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
uh, no, no, no, you refurbish the engine, you
refurbish the engine.

Speaker 3 (42:01):
Yeah, um, the engine started to lose oil because,
like a screw or something wasn'ttight enough and they started
to lose oil, right?

Speaker 1 (42:16):
so imagine being in the middle of the ocean in the
middle of the ocean at night andthe screw on the engine and the
screw on the engine.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
People think of my story.
My story is crazy, Doesn't itreally?

Speaker 1 (42:27):
There's crazy stories out there.
There's crazy stories.
So all of a sudden he's ten,ten nights at sea.
There's one guy that they wererotating.
This is a story that that thatAlexis was telling me the other
day at the gym.
Um, there was one guy that hisjob was to take water out of the
boat.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Right, no, no, everybody has to do that.
Oh they had to rotate.
We put someone to yeah, werotate Every day.
Someone had to take out thewater out of the boat.
You know we had two, twodrivers, um, but was very I

(43:05):
never, I never be in a positionlike that I, so I never would be
in that position like you are.
You know if, in any moment, youcan lose your life.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Yeah, and did you have a really good GPS?
Did you have a really good GPS?
Alexis, we have a compass.
I knew the answer to that no,no, no GPS.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
Compass, no GPS.
You like a?
How do?

Speaker 1 (43:27):
you call the when I'm at a compass, yeah, compass.
When I have a compass, acompass, that's all you had at
night at night.
A compass in the middle of theof the night.

Speaker 3 (43:38):
Yeah, um, imagine we, there is in a moment, we, we
lose the, the engine, you know,and we put a sail for the sail,
um, just with the, the windy,and you have to to keep driving

(43:58):
Right.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
So when you lost the, when you lost the engine, you
guys had made a sail right andthen so, so you, you basically
made it to, to, to land, with,with, the.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
No, we already have it, yeah, we already have it.
We put it, we have it, wealready have it.
The, the, the sail, just incase, you know, just in case
something happened, we have touse that, we use it, we have to
do it, you know.
But then we, we fought forTaiman, taiman Brak and Grand

(44:27):
Taiman, the three islands.
Um, in Grand, in Taiman Brak,they, they gave us food, they
gave us fuel, um medicine, andwe keep going.
That was the only.
The only chart that I saw inthe whole trip was in oh yeah,
you saw one shark yeah, yeah,one shark.

(44:50):
The other people said that theysaw a laugh when it was.
I was asleep, they.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
They said uh, first of all, I don't even know how
you fell asleep in thatsituation.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
So one of the most, um, you know, uh, when we passed
Grand came Taiman, they told us, hey, don't keep going, because
a storm is coming.
Um, you're gonna lose your lifebecause it's a bigger storm is
coming.

(45:18):
But if you, if you to you go tothe Grand Taiman, and you put
your your feet in, grand cameout.
Uh, you know, like Grand, yougo to Cuba and we say, okay, we
first, we first die, then goback to Cuba, and we keep, and

(45:42):
we keep going.
Um, when you do, the night wasfalling, you start to feel the
wind is harder and harder andharder.
Um, man, the waves with thewaves were around eight or seven

(46:02):
meters.
Oh, my god, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
So you're in a wooden boat, you're in a wooden boat,
20 something people on a boat,um, you're with a sail because
your engine is failing and allof a sudden there's you know, 10
foot waves, that's called itand you guys are just, I mean,
and one and one of the thingsthat that, um, because you
needed to land in Honduras, justlike, just like Anthony needed

(46:24):
to go to Mexico.
You needed, you needed to landin Mexico because the once you
land there, then you could, youcould, you could, you could ask
for asylum, correct that?
That's the reason why whyAnthony had to go to Mexico and
why you had to be in Honduras,right?

Speaker 3 (46:38):
No, honduras.
We went to Honduras becauseHonduras doesn't have like the
uh, they don't are monitoringthe, the post.
You know they don't have likefor the patrol, or you know it
was easy.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
It was easy, easy to get into trade with Cuba.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
They don't have trade with Cuba to send people back
to Cuba.
You know they don't have that,those trade.
That's how the country happenedwith Cuba.
Then we we arrived to Hondurasto a beach called Miami, imagine
.
And we arrived to Honduras, itwas a place called a Miami Beach
, by Miss Pines, by a Miami.

(47:19):
Wow, that was, was hard, wasvery hard, you know.
Um, then, when you, when youare right to Honduras, have to
pass all the the things that aregoing to pass, yeah, yeah and
and, and I remember yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
I remember you telling me the story, which is
similar to to what uh, what,anthony, what I, what I saw in
the in the flow wrestling, um,in the flow wrestling
documentary, which is excellent,I mean amazing props to uh, to
the flow wrestling guys.
It was a beautiful, beautifuljob there, um, but you, you
start imagine going through allof that and then you know,

(48:00):
understand that at any pointthere your life is in danger.
You know, um, I know that thatwhen Alexis landed on the beach,
you know, you, you see somepeople on the beach, you don't
know those guys are going tokill you or not.
And in your particular case,anthony, you, you are getting
transported.
It's two different dangers, um,you know, the danger with with
Alexis is the.
You know, if you made it in theocean I'm, how many Cubans I

(48:21):
mean there's thousands andthousands of Cubans that that
are that died at sea, you know,and how many have died on the
trip.
So people don't.
That's another thing that Iwanted to to to get you know and
part of the documentary that Isaw, and just the story, because
, again, being Cuban, you hearthe stories.
How many people have died atsea, how many people they saw
their, their friends, beingeaten by a shark, how many

(48:42):
people, after a couple days, orfive or 10 days in the ocean,
they go crazy and they jump onthe water.
You know, and in your case youknow, anthony, like you know,
there was one thing in the flowwrestling that you said look,
you know, if I don't have themoney to pay, I'm gonna die.
And, and you got to understand,in a lot of those countries
they don't give a shit who youare.
I mean, it doesn't matter.
Uh, I'm sure there's nowrestling fans in the jungle.

(49:03):
You know what I mean, that I'mnot calling it.
I'm not calling it, they don'tcare.
You know how many takedowns youhad in your last tournament or
anything like that.
You, you don't pay the money,you're going to die.
And again, I gotta think as afather, because at the end of
the day, you're a man, you know.
But but you know, you, you, youare pretty damn close to being
a kid at that point and being injail, and being the two months

(49:25):
in jail, and, and one thingagain that you mentioned in the
documentary you know the, thedanger, the clothes that you
guys were wearing, and you know.
And one thing I cannot.
You know, I laughed because Iwas like, oh shit, that's tough,
hey, amanda, oh yeah.

(50:05):
So I just told them, right nowwe're gonna, we're gonna, we're
having Ovedion, because you know, I want, I want to talk to him
was when I get to the part ofthe what everybody living
together and and and the sportsAcademy, and how they mix all
the different sports together,all the combat sports.
I definitely want to talk aboutthat and I want to talk about
his journey too.
So we're including him in here.
So I'm gonna finish up withAnthony.

(50:26):
Hopefully Anthony can stay withus, but I understand if he has
to leave.
So so, anthony, the you know.
So, yeah, you're, you're, you're, you're in that trip, you're,
you're, you're in that jail.
How, how in danger were you inthat jail?
You know, because you know,again, a lot of people die in
the jungle and a lot of peopledie in jail.
So when you're, when you're inthere, I mean at least you could

(50:47):
defend yourself.
Somebody comes at you.
You could, you know, you coulddouble leg them and slam, slam
them on their head, but at theend of the day, you're in a very
, very dangerous place.
You know, it's a truth.
You know people.
Don't call people, don'tconsider wrestling a martial art
.
But it's a martial art, youknow so.
How endangered did you feelinside the jail.
How bad was that.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Well, think about it.
I was a 18 years old being injail around.
You know all that, all the oldpeople 35, 40 years old, and I
was a youngest kid in the injail.
Yeah, I was the youngest guy injail, and you?

Speaker 1 (51:22):
know, I got the uniform that says, hey, I'm a
nice guy because the yeah, theyhave the uniform right.
So so for those of you didn'twatch the floor wrestling
documentary, the, you know, ifyou're wearing blue clothes,
that means you're not dangerous.
If you were wearing orangeclothes, that means you're there
for killing somebody ormurdering somebody.
So what and?

(51:42):
But you're all in the sameplace, correct?
You're on the same place, soyou're in the same place, but
there, though, that's the niceguy over there right.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
So the only reason because I want to explain it
what?
The only reason I went to jailwas because the Tension Center
for immigrants was closed,because there was a lot of
people already in detentioncenter, so they didn't have
capacity for more, for morepeople.
That's why I went to jail.
But as soon as I passed my my,my interview, they sent me back

(52:11):
to detention center.
When I was in detention centerI was feeling like like home,
you know.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
Yeah, so that was easy.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
That was easy.
I was like if I was at thesports school, yeah right,
cubans, you, everything was open, you could see, you could talk
to your friend next to you, youcould see a lot of beds next to
we shoulder, you know, I mean,and it was easy by in jail was
crazy man, you could, how?

Speaker 1 (52:36):
many, so how long were you so you were in jail for
in jail?
Jail for two months.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah, two months, and then one month and the
detention center.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
So how endangered did you feel there?
I mean, did they were you?
Were you worried all day Likeshit?
You know, like I know youmentioned in the, in the, in the
, when you were with the guysthat were transporting you, you
were like dude.
I didn't even sleep because Idon't know what the hell's gonna
happen.
I don't know who these guys are, I don't know if they're gonna
kill me.
So how did that, how did thatwork?

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Well, when I was, when they were driving me to the
jail, I was going all thecharcoal man, my, my legs, my,
my like a murder.

Speaker 1 (53:12):
Like a murder.
Like a murder.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Yeah, like if I killed it somebody.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Yeah the only thing, the only difference between you
and a murderer is just the blueshirt or the blue clothes that
you're wearing.
That's it.
Everything else, the same food,the same place, the same cells,
the same everything.
You the same.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah, no, I was feeling in dangerous the whole
time because you know theenvironment, you know you feel
in bed in danger the whole time,like you know you, you, you,
you're in jail because you'retrying to get into the USA, but
you see other people.
Oh, that guy is here because hewas selling drugs and the other
guy over there he's herebecause he killed three guys.

(53:49):
Yeah, you know you're like, ohmy god, why did I do what I did?

Speaker 1 (53:54):
But you know now, I know this for yeah, yeah, yeah,
but at that point, at that pointyou don't know it's worth it.
At that point you don't knowit's worth it.
That point You're like what thehell am I doing here?
Did I do?

Speaker 2 (54:03):
the right decision.
Yeah, yeah, at that point iscrazy.
I have a friend.
I have a friend that passedthrough jail and he, he couldn't
, he couldn't handle it, heasked for the deportation.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Oh, he said I want to go back to Cuba's like, yeah,
I'm not doing this, oh yeahbecause it's not everybody man
you have to.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
You got a half big balls to pass through jail and
pen three, four.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
So wait a second.
So wait a second, so you couldhave.
So you were there for twomonths, but at any point you
could have been like, hey, I tapout, send me back, I don't care
.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Yeah, like if you give up, man, you say, no, I
can't handle anymore.
Oh, wow see.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
I didn't, I didn't know that.
So you had the choice to belike hey, just send me back.
And you're like no, no, no, no,no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
That's their work right they get paid.
They get paid and, like they,they're trying the whole time.
They're trying to send you backto Cuba.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
Oh, so they want to make it as difficult as possible
so that you could quit and goback to Cuba.

Speaker 2 (54:58):
Oh yeah, like they go to yourself and they say, hey,
we want to have an interviewwith you.
So you go to the interview roomand they start talking to you
man, you don't have to be here,that you could be spending this
time right now with your familyin Cuba, but you decide to come
here.
Don't make it more difficultfor you.

Speaker 1 (55:18):
Really you're not gonna be able to get out.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
They tell you that you're not gonna be able to get
out.
You're gonna spend a long timehere, bob, and you're gonna be.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
You're gonna be with your family in about three days,
so Sign this letter and that'sit, and you're gonna go home
right and you're there with yourfamily.
He was a wrestler.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
I have a friend who was a wrestler who wrestled for
the national team.
He defected his team when I,when he was in Mexico, he passed
through jail and he couldn't,he couldn't support.
Yeah he couldn't stay, hecouldn't stand and he asked for
the.
He asked for their letter Right.
Sign the letter in three days.
In three days.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
Back to Cuba and that's it right.
To the jail to, though when yougo to Cuba you're in jail, but
at least you're in jail in Cuba,correct?

Speaker 2 (56:03):
Yeah, yeah, well, sometimes it's not.
I mean, I don't know.
I don't know how it works, butI, man, that guy lost His future
.
What is he gonna do?
He was a great wrestler, yeah,in Cuba.
He wanted to.
He wanted a better future.
About.
What is he gonna do now?
Yeah, because he's not gonna beable to represent Cuba anymore.
Yeah, and what is he gonna do?

(56:24):
He's not gonna be able to go toUniversity and graduate.
Yeah, because he defected aCuban team Trying to come to USA
.
Man, what's?

Speaker 1 (56:34):
crazy.
What is so when you get out,you get out through, they
finally let you out, you go tothe detention center and you get
, and you get to the UnitedStates.
What is?
Because I see, I've been there.
I've picked a lot of peoplefrom the airport in Cuba, I mean
in Miami.
I picked people from theairport and showed them Miami,
right, so I've been there.

(56:54):
Like the first time a Cubansees the United States, you know
, I See the, the, the look whenthey go to the mall for the
first time, when they see thestreets Coneo, galim, pios, a do
, everything is so clean and andI've seen the, the Shock, that
being in the United States.

(57:15):
So what?
What's the, what is it that yousaw?
The biggest thing that you'relike, wow, really like, this is
so different.
What did you see in the UnitedStates that just shocked you,
that freaked you out?

Speaker 2 (57:27):
I mean like everything is so clean.
They're like you know.
They said man, united States,great, yeah, I don't know.
I bend the knee what.
I was sleeping at the detentioncenter.
I was sleeping and Somebodycalled me out hey, anthony,
shaman dia, you gotta.
You got a meeting with their,with your attorney.

(57:49):
So I want to talk to myattorney because you know, to
get out of the tension centeryou have to send, your family
have to send letters.
I don't know if you know aboutit, but you have to send letter
in your family needs to sendthat to claim you, they have to
claim you.

Speaker 4 (58:03):
I can get a good record I'm at it right.
Yeah, somebody has to sayalright, I'm in charge.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
I'm responsible for for Anthony.
If anything happens, I'mresponsible.
I'm signing off that I'mresponsible for Anthony.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
Yeah, right.
So my family did all that stuffand you know, I was just
waiting for To see what wasgonna happen.
And when they called me out,hey, they, the attorney, want to
talk to you about some stuff.
I don't know, I want to To talkto my attorney.
My attorney told me hey, we'regonna let you go, man, I'm glad

(58:35):
to let you know.
And that when my attorney toldme that I've been to me, Right,
so I cried of course.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Of course I dream, true, you know I mean.
That's crazy.
So, so, so, so.
Well then.
So you go from your words tothe tension center.
What, what, what, uh, whatcountry is it in the United
States?

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Yeah, in the United States Okay.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
So then you, the first time you go out is is in
what?
In what state?
Where were you when, when youwere in?

Speaker 2 (59:04):
the Washington New Mexico.
I mean you might see guys.
Not, it's not a.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
Oh shit.
Oh, you hung up a mistake.
You know how to get them back.
Oh, so you were a nationalchampion, Alexi?
How many times?

Speaker 4 (59:21):
No, I was a major and a solo B, and you were a kid.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
I was a national champion four times.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
And when did you start?
I started when I was eight.
I was eight or nine years old.
I was a hobby, but I startedwhen I was nine, nine years

(59:56):
later.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Let's finish with Anthony.
I don't know what happened.
You pressed the button.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
Oh, I pressed the airpast.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
So when you got to the United States, tell me about
high school.
Tell me about the differencebetween when you get to high
school there.
What's the difference betweenhigh school and Cuba and the
United States?

Speaker 2 (01:00:27):
We have a different system in Cuba.
In Cuba, if you're a goodathlete, as we say in Cuba, they
pass you by.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
They passed you by too.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
They pass you by that means let me translate.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
they pass you by means, they make it easy for you
, and that happens in the UnitedStates too.
If you're a good athlete, youget the easiest classes.
They make sure you pass.
It happens in the United Statestoo.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
The difference here in the US is that I'm alone in
this country.
I want to go to high schoolbecause I want to do big things
here.
I want to graduate from college, get my college degree, because
I know that's really importanthere in the.
United States.
I decided to go to high school.
I saw that it's way differenthere.
Everything is organized.

(01:01:22):
You need to take this class, Iwant to take this one.
I think this one is easier.
You need to get these courses.
You need to have good grades tocompete.
That's another thing.
That's why I couldn't competewhen I started my high school

(01:01:42):
season, because I didn't havegood grades.
I was coming from Cuba.
I think I'm smart, because tolearn different languages in
less than two years is crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
If you were in Miami right now, you would still not
be speaking English.
In Miami you don't have tospeak English.
I know people who have livedhere 30 or 40 years and don't
speak English.
In Miami you can live the wholetime.
You're over there and you haveno choice.
You have to speak English.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
I didn't have a choice.
The difference was that in Cuba, if you're the good wrestler of
the team, you're going tocompete for sure Because the
team needs you.
But here in the USA they don'tcare.
If you don't have good grades,you're not going to compete.
They force you to have goodgrades, get focused in school,

(01:02:41):
but also they want you to dowell in wrestling.
So it's difficult.
That's why I don't know he washard for me, because I was the
Nino Lindo.
How do I?

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
translate Nino Lindo.
It's like the Superst, theGolden Child, the Golden Child.
They make things easy for you.
So you come over here and, bythe way, I'm telling you right
now that you still had it easierthan the regular kids.
I'm sure they put you with thenicest teachers.

(01:03:20):
I played basketball and I wasnowhere near as good as you are
in wrestling.
I had four PE classes my senioryear.
Out of six classes, four ofthem were PE.
So they make it easier for you.
But why did you pick Ohio State?

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
A lot of people ask me.
That's a good question and alot of people ask me the same
question.
So I went to Iowa State.
I committed to Iowa State.
I didn't commit.
That wasn't legal.
That wasn't the national letterof intent, so I didn't sign

(01:04:00):
anything.
That was just a paper with somewords.
Some people were talking aboutme.
I went to Iowa State and now hewants to do the other official
visits.
But that wasn't real.
I'm alone in this country so Idon't know how the college

(01:04:22):
things works.
So think about coming from Cuba, seeing the Cuban wrestling
room and then going to highschool, and the high schools
here got really good wrestlingrooms but I think better than

(01:04:42):
Cuba.
When I went to college I sawthe difference.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
You saw the level.
You mean the level of wrestling.

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
Yeah, the level of wrestling and the difference
between college wrestling roomand high school wrestling room
and Cuba wrestling room, becauseI saw you saw the Cuban Olympic
room, you saw the high schoolroom and you saw the college
room.

(01:05:12):
When I went to that college, toIowa State, I thought it was the
best place in the United Statesand I told my coaches because I
didn't know that I could go tofive official visits.
I didn't know that.
I didn't know anything aboutcollege folk style.
I think I thought I was goingto wrestle freestyle when I went

(01:05:33):
to college, my first tournament.
I was throwing people and thereferee was like hey stop.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
What are you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
doing Stalling.
I was like what are you talkingabout?

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
And that's one of the questions what do you like
about folk style in comparisonto freestyle?
Or have you fallen in love withfolk style a little bit, or are
you still, like man, I'm afreestyle guy.
How do you feel about that?

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
Well, I'm not going to fall in love with folk style.
That's not going to happen.
To be honest, that's not goingto happen.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
How did I know you were going to answer that I?

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
love freestyle, but I want to get my college degree.
I want to have the opportunity.
I want to keep that door open.
To be able to wrestle incollege you have to wrestle folk
style and I love to wrestle infront of 15,000 people, 10,000

(01:06:31):
people, I have a feeling you'regoing to figure it out and
you're going to like it a littlebit more.
You're going to be very good atit.
To answer your question, Idecided to go to Ohio State
because, man, when I went toOhio State, they showed me
everything Like if you graduatefrom Ohio State, you're going to

(01:06:53):
get a really good degree, likeOhio State, nation is really big
and you're going to get a lotof opportunities, good jobs,
because I'm not thinking justabout wrestling.
I want to graduate, I want toget a good job.
After wrestling I'm not goingto be able to rest my whole life
.
That's why I went to Ohio State, because they have a good

(01:07:17):
academic and they have a goodwrestling program and the last
Olympic champion for USA wasfrom Ohio State, so Kyle's 90.
That's another reason they'redoing the good things.
That's why I went to Ohio State.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
And what's the hardest thing for you for the
adjustment with folk style andfreestyle?
Is it the top, bottom position,the referee position?
What is it that you're like?

Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
shit man Top bottom.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
That's my favorite part and again, I'm not a
wrestler and everything but theguy who's falling in love with
it and everything like that.
The top bottom to me is the artof the folk style.
Man, I see my son and drillingit and the details, and I've
seen that it wins matches.
It's the way you score.
And again, man, I'm either thebest guy to ask about it or the

(01:08:11):
worst guy to ask about itBecause, again, I'm not a
wrestler wrestler, so I'mlooking at it from the outside.
You know what I mean.
So sometimes my opinion is likeyou know, it's refreshing.
And sometimes you're like look,this guy's an idiot, don't
listen to this guy.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
You know he doesn't know wrestling.
If you know how to wrestle top,bottom and folk style, it's
really important.
You can be losing a match forlike 10 points different.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
Then get out and reverse it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:41):
No, if you're a killer, if you're a killer on
top, it doesn't matter if you'relosing by 10 points.
If you're a killer on top,nobody can stop your techniques.
You're gonna win.
So I have to get better on topand bottom.
What I mean.
I don't care about top.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
You feel good about top right?

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
No, I don't care about top because I think if I
get in that position I'm notgonna wrestle, I'm just gonna
leave the guy and wrestle myfeet, because I feel really
comfortable wrestling on my feet.
But I have to get better onbottom how to skate.
I need to get better.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Yeah, because usually in freestyle you're stalling,
you're flattening out, you'restalling and then you get up.
So that's different.
So I'm sure that's gonna be anadjustment.
Ovedita, hi, okay, yeah.
So I want to get to the partwhere, in a perfect world, I
wanted to get you guys at theend here and I wanted to ask
about what I think makes a Cubanwrestler maybe like a Russian

(01:09:54):
wrestler and a little bitdifferent.
Listen, I love the Americansystem and listen, it's amazing.
And again, I'm seeing my songrow up and everything like that
.
It's a beautiful thing.
I just like to see what works,what makes these different
countries work and what makesthese different countries
different and the stories thatI've heard.

(01:10:16):
What's different here in theUnited States is that my kid
goes to school, goes to a nightschool, then goes to practice.
You guys had to live in a placewith all the combat athletes in
one house.
Basically, that has to be crazyand that I think has a large
part to do with the mentality ofthe Cuban athlete.

(01:10:39):
That has to be insane, like I'mthinking, dropping my son off
in a place and then you got theboxers.
So I'm saying, do youunderstand that?
Yes, I do.
Okay, so I've heard stories,you know.
So I'm sure you guys arefighting on a regular basis.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
Right, no, you can't ask us, buddy, like between
boxers, wrestlers, the guys whodo judo and all the combat
sports, Bro, we're alwaysfighting Taekwondo karate.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Taekwondo karate.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
And we're always fighting to decide who's the
boss.
All right, the strongest, thisis the strongest sport.

Speaker 1 (01:11:20):
Okay, so what sport wins?
So what sport wins?
All right, who's the toughestguys?

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
That's one thing I want to.

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
That's why I wanted both of you here.
We don't fight, we don't.
He can't tell you like werespect each other a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
The boxers and the wrestlers.

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
Yeah, we don't fight.

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
Oh really.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
He can't tell you like we don't fight, like we
respect each other, because weknow Right, because he knows
that wrestlers are dangerous.
The wrestlers also know thatthe boxers are dangerous.
So we keep the space, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
Right right right, I rather.

Speaker 4 (01:11:58):
You know, you know, and what I'm saying is that you
know, when you fight, you knowyou're going to lose.
You're going to lose, you'regoing to disappear.
Right, You'll get caught andyou'll be shot and you'll be
taken.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
What I'm saying is that I said it was that the
wrestlers and the wrestlers arewaiting, because the wrestlers
know that the boxers, we knowthat the boxers are a dangerous
sport, but you also know thatthe fight is a dangerous sport.

Speaker 4 (01:12:23):
That's why we respect each other.
That's what I want to say.
You know it all depends.
You know it depends on manythings, but hey, that's never
been put to the test, becausethere are many things.
But hey, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
Well, ufc, well, ufc, it also tests that, but it also
depends on the boxer anddepends on the, of course, and
that's also the question that wealways ask ourselves who wants
to fight in a UFC?

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
and the boxers do the same thing.
It all depends.
You know, it's like everythingyou know.

Speaker 3 (01:12:50):
That type of fight, jesus, where you see yourself
more is at the level of AD,which is more children, you know
At the level of AD because theydon't think much about it to
release their hands, but whenthey start to grow up they're in
the E for the national team,and that's what I'm saying
because I know they're a family.

(01:13:11):
Okay, so let me.
But when they're in the A, theysay and they look like bad
fighters, they're going to usetheir mouth to cover their mouth
.
Okay so For a girlfriend, or?
I'm going to translate that?

Speaker 1 (01:13:23):
So you know what he's saying.
Is that in the A there?
What?
What age is the A there?

Speaker 2 (01:13:30):
About 20 years or so, because you go to the gym too,
right, so I'll go to the gym.

Speaker 3 (01:13:34):
Yes, yes, you know, 18, 20 years old, but there's
more or less what happens isthat in my time, in my time, the
A there was up to the up to the16, 17 years old, 15, 16 years
old.
From there they went to the gym, but that's what they changed.
They were already dead.

Speaker 4 (01:13:53):
Yes, that's what I'm saying now.
That's more.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
Right.
So what he's saying is no butthe body.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
The body went to the gym more or less.
I think I was there more orless.

Speaker 4 (01:14:03):
I was there longer.
No, I was.
I was like you, you know 14years old.
You're free out there.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
With a maho and sido maho and sido by.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
Right.
So what he's saying is look,you know, when you're in the A
there, it's usually a kid.
Then they send you to the Espa,which is the, I guess, the more
senior level of the sportsacademy.
Dime Alexi.

Speaker 3 (01:14:27):
The Espa, they went to the Espa National Team.
You see, every sport in Cubahas Espa.
In Havana, cuba the capital,where every sport has a facility
center where they train boxer,wrestler, judo, track and field,

(01:14:47):
volleyball, basketball,everybody In Havana.
They call it Espa Nacional.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
Yeah, like when you're an outstanding athlete,
they send you to the Espa.
So you go to the Espa.
You have been, you won likethree national titles.
You can go to the Espa it'slike the national team for
juniors, and after the ESCA youcan go to the national team for
seniors.
Right, all right.

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
So Anthony, I would like to ask you how was for you
being a kid?
You arrived at the CubaNational Team at age of 16.
And I know that in Cuba boxingteam, wrestling team, are the

(01:15:36):
most I can see dangerous placesbecause the how is the mood for
the zoo?

Speaker 1 (01:15:50):
The environment.

Speaker 3 (01:15:52):
The environment is there because wrestler, boxer,
they fighting for status in theteam.
You know you get better food,you get better room with AC,
maybe internet, if you are thebest guy, if you go to win

(01:16:16):
Panang, if you go to win goldmedal in the world champion or
whatever in the Olympics.
But for a kid at 16 years old,I arrived with all those
monsters already men, olympicchampion, world champion, panang
champion, they don't care ifyou have 16 years old, they're

(01:16:36):
going to go to pass over you.
I would, for you, deal, bedealing every day fighting,
wrestling with those guys likeBonnet, calabaza, etc.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
I went to the national team when I was 16
years old and I had to deal withall those guys I had to wrestle
.
I was 16 years old and I waswrestling against 35 years old.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
Like who Give us names, like who were you
wrestling on a regular basis?

Speaker 2 (01:17:13):
I was wrestling against the world champion
Calabaza, multiple times worldmedalist, panang champion.
I was wrestling against allthose guys and I was 16 years
old.
So the age when you're over 16,it doesn't matter, like because
in Cuba you're going to have towrestle against.

(01:17:35):
If you're 16 and you want towrestle at the senior level,
you're going to have to wrestleagainst Olympic world champions.
So that's not an excuse for me,because when I got to this
country, a lot of peoplecomplaining about my age.
I think I was 19 years old.
Okay, if I'm wrestling againstyou and you're 18, I'm just one

(01:17:55):
year older than you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:56):
Yeah right, in Cuba you're doing 5 years, 10 years.
You don't see what I?

Speaker 2 (01:18:00):
yeah, you don't see what I passed through, because
when I was in Cuba, I was 16years old, in the national team
wrestling against 35, 37, 38, 25, any age.
And they don't take it easy onyou, they go just as hard or
harder, they want to keep theirspot Right so and they don't

(01:18:21):
care.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
What they don't want to lose to is a kid.
You know they want to make sure.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
That's another thing that they don't see, like here
in USA is different.
You can there is a lot of RTCslike regional training centers
here in USA, but in Cuba it'snot like that.
Like if you're a top guy in thecountry, you go to just one
place the national team, right.
So all the best wrestlers inthe nation are training together

(01:18:48):
and that's like a war, you see,okay, I want to keep my spot.
I'm the first guy.

Speaker 1 (01:18:55):
Who was the guy who was the hardest on you?
Who was the guy who was thebiggest dick?

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
Who was the guy that was that was just mean Jolly
Bonnet man.
When I got to the national teamI was Jolly Bonnet's wakeback
Right and I have to end like.
But when I turned 18 years old,before I defected my defect
Cuba, I beat him up, I beat him.

Speaker 1 (01:19:16):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
And I was 18 years old.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
Right Not a lot of people know.
That right Not a lot of peopleknow that?

Speaker 2 (01:19:21):
Yeah, not a lot of people know that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
Yeah, interesting.
Now I already one of the thingsthat I want to ask how does it
work with the food?
Because I, from what I've heardI heard it in the Joe Rogan
interview and that's one of thethings that I wanted to talk
more about.
What if you win?
You go to another place thathas better food, right.
So if you're a champion, you goto a whole different section

(01:19:47):
that has better food.
So you want to go to acompletely different place that
takes the best food, the wholething.
Tell me a little bit about that.
Tell me how does that work?

Speaker 4 (01:19:57):
At least I don't know how it works.
You know in the fight, but inboth places that I was in the
National League, I decided thaton the kind of protest, the four

(01:20:24):
of us, the all of ustheimalists, fight for one thing
, and it Chiang Tri was decidedit passed, passed it, passed it,
passed it, passed it, passed it, passed it.
Okay, okay, right, so it wasmore specific.
So what he's saying is thatit's just not really.

Speaker 1 (01:21:06):
You have more food, as much as that.
You know, in one place they'recooking for like a hundred
people and in another placethey're cooking for, like you
know, the small group ofchampions, and this food is more
specific, you know, and it'sand it's and it's better food,
anthony, don't say that.
So explain a little bit aboutthat a little bit in English.
The, the how does that workwith, with with the food thing?
Cause that, that, to me, amazesme, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
Yeah, you were talking about.
Yeah, you were right.
So I don't know.
Yeah, I mean, the same thingbetween wrestling and boxing is
like the same thing.
If you, if you have, like, ifyou go to the world
championships and you win amedal, so you immediately go,

(01:21:49):
you immediately pass, you'repart of the of the different I
don't know how to say it likethe different, right.

Speaker 1 (01:21:57):
The different dining room, the different dining hall.

Speaker 2 (01:22:00):
Yeah, the different dining, yeah, so like the deep
in in wrestling is way different, cause the the normal one for
like the, the one for everybodyhas, like the food is gross, to
be honest, is it is it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:18):
What's better?
What's better the jail food orthe food in the in the sports
center?

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
It's almost the same thing, to be honest, but like
the food for the, for thechampions, it's really good.

Speaker 1 (01:22:34):
It's really really good, it's like the it's like
the.

Speaker 2 (01:22:38):
It's like the buffet.
It's like a buffet In the SerroPelado, in the Serro Pelado.

Speaker 1 (01:22:42):
Vario de los Puegos, but Jueri is laughing.

Speaker 2 (01:22:45):
No Vario de los Puegos.
Like, if you go to Cerro Pulado, you for the, the dinner room
for the champions.
They can pick whatever theywant.
They have different choices,they have different meats, they
have different fruits to pick.
They can eat whatever they want, but you're the champion, you
deserve it.
If you want to go there, youneed to fight for it.

(01:23:05):
You want to.
You want to go there.
You want to eat where all thechampions are eating?
Okay, when the the world, theworld championships that's the
stimulation in Cuba Right,they're not.
Okay that maybe they're goingto give you a little bit more
money.
Like, if you were getting paid$40 and if you win the world

(01:23:29):
championships, you're going toget paid $100, like $60 more,
right?

Speaker 1 (01:23:35):
Ovedi, and now you're a professional there.
You're a professional already,you're a professional boxer.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:23:40):
So from August 31st I started my career.

Speaker 1 (01:23:44):
So you just became pro August 31st right.

Speaker 4 (01:23:54):
Yes, august 31st was my first fight after I started
my career as a professional andhow many fights do you have?

Speaker 1 (01:24:02):
How many do you?

Speaker 4 (01:24:02):
have.
I have 135.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
135.
See, so that's.
That's because I've alwaysheard that the Cuban boxers have
like 400, 500 amateur fights.
You know and it goes back towhat I was talking to, anthony,
about you know like how manyamateur boxing I mean wrestling
matches the kids here have, youknow.
So it's a little bit different.
I think in wrestling they do alittle bit less, but from what
every Cuban boxer that I know ofhere, alexi, when they get here

(01:24:27):
they usually have 400, 500fights.
Yeah but those bodies aredifferent.

Speaker 3 (01:24:33):
Because those bodies came, he left Cuba with 20 years
old.
And Osvaldo.
Osvaldo won the Junior WorldChampionship in Russia 2016, or
World Championship and he wasbig like the best athlete in

(01:24:55):
that tournament, 2016.
And then he won Cuban nationalchampionship senior and after
that he left the island and hewent to Mexico with just 20
years old.
He don't have all thatbackground like other Cuban
boxer, like Rigondo Lara Gamboa,that they were Olympic champion

(01:25:18):
, world champion.
They have in Cuba more than 300, 400 fights.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
I'm still on the internet, so it became very
young Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
Did you mention Osvaldo was a Junior World
Championship.

Speaker 3 (01:25:34):
Yeah, I really did.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
With who did you win the World Championship?
With who did you compete in thechampionships?

Speaker 4 (01:25:40):
I played with a Polish team, a Polish team.
So who are the best?

Speaker 1 (01:25:48):
boxing team in the Cuban world.
Cuban, what I fought, what theywere in that moment In general,
in general, well, now we are inthe same place.

Speaker 4 (01:26:00):
Good point you know, but in this case for me, what
was best for me was, you know,the United States had a good
team.
The United States had a goodteam.
Russia of course they were intheir zone, right.

(01:26:22):
They were good too, they werein Russia.

Speaker 3 (01:26:23):
The event was in Russia.
Yes, in St.

Speaker 4 (01:26:26):
Petersburg.
You know it was there next tothe stadium where they did the
World Championship.
You know there was what.
They were, not the team.
You know there were people,there were many people, who were
stuck in the middle of thetrain.
You know, because of that,because of that, yes, there were
people who were an example 56kg were very strong.
Right For you to have the goldmedal, you had to fight six, six

(01:26:50):
fights.
You know that's in the AkkoMatau, that wow In a weekend.
No, no, no, no it was.
If I remember correctly, wearrived in Russia on November
16th and we left on November26th.

(01:27:12):
That's how it was about 10 days, because we had a lot of people
Interesting.
You know, the competition inCuba would be like a week, but
not in the US.
Yes, it was, but it was a week,but not in the US.
And now 168.
168, perfect.

(01:27:33):
Yeah, perfect, that wasexcellent.

Speaker 3 (01:27:46):
Ovarie.
Ovarie is a typical casebecause Ovarie is the second
fighter who, with only twofights, gives him an opportunity
to fight for a world title.
The first fighter was VasileMachenko, who fought for a world
title in his first fight in theUS.

(01:28:09):
Turn it down, perfect, perfect,perfect.
What's going on of that layerof debauchers of that stable of

(01:28:59):
that company?
Pivici Maxxon, that is thecompany that has more debauchers
right now in the worldprofessional, and he is there
and he is in a division almostin the 18th book where he is one
of the best division right now,where he is.
Canelo Alvarez, where TaylorPlan, david Benavidez is, and
Elmar Charlo.

(01:29:20):
There are many debauchers inthat weight and many of these
debauchers are managed by thesame people that represent them.
That is, these fights arefights that can really be given
and will be given in the future.
Of course, barisolo has beenhere for 22 years, yeah.
He is a guy who trains withextraordinary passion.
Where are you living now?

(01:29:40):
Where are you living?
In Trenta?
Where?

Speaker 4 (01:29:43):
are you living now?
Where are you living now?
Here In Minnesota, inMinneapolis, in Minnesota?

Speaker 3 (01:29:47):
Right, we send him there so he can learn English,
so he can get it out of the wayyou know.
Oh, I see.

Speaker 1 (01:29:54):
We are from the US.

Speaker 2 (01:29:58):
Hey, but he should talk about.
He should talk about like whenwe were in the military in Cuba.
Oh yes, you can ask him ourfights.
Who won all the fights?
Well, we used to fight againsteach other and he couldn't beat
me, never.
He couldn't.

Speaker 1 (01:30:19):
That's one of his greatest dreams.

Speaker 2 (01:30:21):
He couldn't beat me.

Speaker 4 (01:30:24):
It's like 20 kilos.
I understand this.
I understand Papi.

Speaker 2 (01:30:27):
Papi.

Speaker 1 (01:30:30):
It's okay, we'll fight Papi.

Speaker 4 (01:30:34):
You can't let your hand go out like you wanted,
Papi.
No, Okay, so you said sorry,Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:30:41):
Papi, you can't let your hand go out like you wanted
, papi, no.

Speaker 4 (01:30:45):
Okay, so you said sorry.
Thank you, Papi.
No, this is so good.
No, but Anthony, you know mybrother, you know my brother
understands.

Speaker 1 (01:31:03):
No, there's no sense.

Speaker 4 (01:31:10):
It's when I was time to show off my tactics.

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
I was like I'm not ready or things to help so far.
I went for him just like that.
It's a lot easier for me tounderstand that he's really in
the future.
Did you think of MMA?

Speaker 2 (01:31:21):
Yeah, I was thinking about it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:23):
No, no, the American, the American.
So Anthony is crazy.
The Mexican, he's like hey,what's up?
Man?
He's like sorry, I was going tosay something, all right so
that okay.

Speaker 1 (01:31:36):
so what he's saying?
Is that Anthony's crazy, yeah,yeah yeah, and since Mexico and
since Mexico he's been talkingabout.
He's been talking about goinginto MMA and, from what I'm
hearing, you used to box already, anthony.
You know how to box alreadyfrom before from the military.

Speaker 2 (01:31:52):
Well, he was teaching me how to you know how to use
my hands.
He was teaching me, but I'm notthat good at boxing.
I want to learn and you know Ilove to fight.
When I was at the sports school, I used to fight every day.
I think it's something I don'tknow.

Speaker 3 (01:32:06):
I like it.
I'm talking about hisrelationship with Henry.

Speaker 1 (01:32:12):
Zahulu.

Speaker 2 (01:32:17):
No, I just I, I wrestle, I wrestle.
Angel Zahulu, oh, Angel Zahulu,yeah, Angel Zahulu, the brother
, the brother.

Speaker 1 (01:32:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:32:26):
Zahulu's brother.
I wrestle him, but you know, Idon't, I don't want to talk
about it because he's retired.

Speaker 1 (01:32:32):
Right right.

Speaker 2 (01:32:34):
And you know what I'm not going to win anything, I'm
not.

Speaker 1 (01:32:36):
Yeah, I didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:32:37):
I don't like that.
I mean.
No, he was fine and I wrestlehim and he's a great wrestler.
I have so much respect for him.

Speaker 1 (01:32:45):
Yeah, hey and uh.
So MMA is possible for you,Possible for both of you.
Mma.

Speaker 2 (01:32:51):
It's.
Uh, I think it's possible forme, and I have been tagging
already with what's the name ofthe guy.
Like Joel Romero.
Like Joel Romero.

Speaker 1 (01:33:04):
Malki or Abraham.

Speaker 3 (01:33:10):
Malki Kawa.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
Malki Kawa or Abraham Kawa.

Speaker 2 (01:33:13):
And I have been tagging to Captain America, okay
, the guy who coached HenrySeguro, okay, and I have been
tagging to all those guys and Ithink I'm interested, man, I
want to do it, yeah becausethat's one of the things that I
was saying, because I knowboxing, boxing.

Speaker 1 (01:33:31):
You know you'll start making money now.
You'll start making money now,but wrestling right.
The real avenue for wrestlersright now is really MMA.
When, you see what uh.

Speaker 3 (01:33:42):
Daniel.

Speaker 1 (01:33:42):
Cormier, what you see with these, with these, uh,
what these wrestlers are are aremaking right now in the UFC,
and and you can see that MMAfighters they have to for, for,
for, make big, big money.

Speaker 3 (01:33:57):
They have to do boxing.

Speaker 1 (01:33:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:34:01):
Because he never saw 100 million.
Yeah, you know before, beforehe, before he fought Floyd, yeah
.

Speaker 2 (01:34:09):
I think to be able to win, uh, ufc titles, you, you
need to know a little bit aboutall the combats.
Floyd, okay, I'm a goodwrestler.
No, no, no, no, that's not whatI'm saying.

Speaker 3 (01:34:23):
No, no, that's not what I'm saying.
Give me a smile, get out, giveme a smile.

Speaker 1 (01:34:38):
Give me a smile.

Speaker 3 (01:34:42):
Give me a smile.
Great, yes, his ex politiciansevery week.
Nunca lo hubiera hecho en MMA,pero lo hizo en una noche
peleando con Floyd.

Speaker 1 (01:34:51):
Bueno, la MMA está subiendo.
Mma es getting better.

Speaker 3 (01:34:55):
En Chile hay getting better, pero el voceo sigue
arriba.
¿sabes En lo que es el pagocomo tal?
Pero los salarios de la gentede MMA, que es altísimo.
¿sabes, Comparado a una personacomo normal, lo que gana a un
atleta ahora mismo, este fin desemana, con el fregusto gana un

(01:35:16):
500 mil dólares, medio millón dedólares.

Speaker 1 (01:35:20):
Alright, bueno, guys, I've taken up enough of your
time.
Gracias por el tiempo.
Ya estaba como ustedes, noquiero quedarle más tiempo, it's
been amazing.
It's been amazing.
I'm very happy that you guysare here in the United States.
I'm very happy that you guysare representing the United
States.
Like I say, I'm Cuban, but I'mCuban American.
I'm very proud to be Americanand I'm very proud to have you

(01:35:40):
guys here in the United States.
I'm very happy for you guys tohave the opportunities that you
have.
I'm very happy for you guys toenjoy what I've enjoyed in the
United States and all thesuccess in the world.
And you guys got me here, man.
You come to Miami.
You got me here, Count with me,Cuenten conmigo, and a lot of
success, man.
You guys have my phone number.
I'll send it to you.
And awesome, Good luck witheverything Alright.

(01:36:04):
Thank you so much for theopportunity.
Thank you, man.
Thank you for all theinformation.
Okay, dale, guys.
Gracias mamá.
Gracias bro, Gracias a ustedes.

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Anthony Echemendia - On How the Cuban Wrestling and Sports Dynasty Works | RETalkPodcast | Episode 14

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Anthony Echemendia - On How the Cuban Wrestling and Sports Dynasty Works | RETalkPodcast | Episode 14