Álvarez imposed his favouritism from the first round, and won by unanimous 5-0 decision against Ibarreche

The Cuban Olympic monarch Erislandy Álvarez demonstrated his class in his debut at the Liverpool-2025 World Boxing Championship, and convincingly defeated the Spaniard Oier Ibarreche in the 65 kilograms.

In the ring of the M&S Bank Arena, Álvarez imposed his favouritism from the first round, and won by unanimous 5-0 decision against Ibarreche, to contribute the third victory of the Cuban team in the contest.

Aged 25, the Paris-2024 title holder will face Almaz Orozbekov of Kyrgyzstan tomorrow in his second outing, who dominated his bout 5-0 against Viktorio Iliev of Bulgaria.

“I felt good, in correspondence with the work we have done for this event, and I thank the Cuban people for supporting me,” said the Caribbean athlete to Jit, after celebrating the first step towards the crown that eluded him in the preceding Tashkent-2023 event.

Now, Cuba exhibits three wins and five losses, as this Sunday Rolando Martínez (55 kg) and Jorge Soto (80 kg) were eliminated.

Martínez fought with the Azerbaijani Nijat Huseynov in an even duel that constituted his debut at that level. He finished at a good rhythm, through much grit, but the verdict came 4-1 for his opponent.

Also on his debut, Soto fell, 2-3 against the US universal king of 2021, Robby Gonzales.

In such a manner, three Cubans remain in competition and five are eliminated, as before Jorge Cuéllar (70 kg), Nelson Williams (90 kg) and Luis Enrique Vinent (60 kg) gave way, the latter being the only one who will return home with just one win.

Today, the double Olympic champion, Julio César La Cruz (+90 kg), will face the Iranian Amir Esmaeili, and tomorrow, besides Erislandy, Alejandro Claro (50 kg) will have his first presentation.