Mexican boxer beats the odds to qualify for Rio
Tlaxcala (Mexico) July 16 (IANS) Just five days after Valentine’s Day, Mexican boxer Joselito Velazquez was gazing in the mirror at his dislocated shoulder when he resolved, against all odds, to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“I was in London, for the World Series, and I suddenly felt that my right shoulder was out of place. I knew my only chance was to bet on the impossible,” Velazquez told Efe in an interview on Friday.
More often than not, a dislocated shoulder would mean the end of a boxing career, but the 22-year-old Cancun native is now considered the miracle man of Mexico’s Olympic squad.
“I had doubts for the first two weeks. Then they put me with a therapist who took away the pain. I began to get stronger and regain my health,” Velazquez said.
“It was another thing to get back in the ring and when I did it I felt strong, explosive,” he added.
Velazquez, with a record of 138 wins and 40 defeats, is Mexico’s best amateur boxer of the past decade, winning the gold medal in the men’s light flyweight class at the 2011 and 2015 Pan American Games.
“I will arrive in Rio confident of conquering my last medal” before turning professional, he said.