Alan Hubbard: World Series of Boxing has far to go - but is setting historic precedent for Cuban professionalisation

When the British Lionhearts take on the Algeria Desert Hawks at London's York Hall this Thursday (February 5) night it will provide some indication as to whether the boxing brainchild of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) President Dr C K Wu is actually beginning to grab fans by the punchballs in this country.

So far the World Boxing series (WSB) tournament has yet to take off as a major player on the British fight scene, with barely any publicity in the written media despite the Lionhearts' fixtures being screened live by BT.

The crowd at York Hall for the winning opening match against the China Dragons last month was measured in hundreds rather than thousands - but then the capacity of what is arguably boxing's most atmospheric arena is only 1,200.

By its very nature WSB will attract just a niche audience in countries such as Britain and the United States where professional boxing proliferates and dominates.

And the jury is still out on whether GB boxers can adapt to a pro-am mix-and-match format which allows overseas boxers to be included as part of the five-man squad.

For instance, a hand injury has forced the Welsh Commonwealth Games lightweight bronze medallist Joe Cordina, to withdraw from Thursday's encounter. His replacement will be 31-year-old Detelin Dalakliev from Bulgaria, who competed at the Olympic Games in 2004 and 2012.

He has had an intense rivalry with Britain's 2012 gold medallist Luke Campbell, who narrowly beat him in London as he did at the 2011 World Championships in Baku and the final of the 2008 European Championships.

Bulgarian Detelin Dalakliev will compete for the British team despite usually being among Luke Campbell's biggest rivals ©AFP/Getty Images

Bulgarian Detelin Dalakliev will compete for the British team despite usually being among Luke Campbell's biggest rivals. They are pictured competing against each other at London 2012 ©AFP/Getty Images

Dalakliev joins flyweight Jack Bateson, welterweight Ekow Essuman, light-heavyweight John Newell super-heavyweight Joe Joyce in the Lionhearts team as they look to bounce back from consecutive 3-2 away defeats against the Ukraine Otamans and Morocco Atlas Lions.

For those yet to be initiated, WSB, now in its fifth season, is the only global team boxing competition where national teams go head to head in a league format. In total,16 teams compete in two groups of eight with the top three qualifying for play-offs.

The boxers compete without vests or headguards in five three-minute rounds. There are five bouts per match and scoring is through the 10-point-must-system. It is pro-boxing in all but name.

The absence of headguards is probably the most contentious aspect. It has already cost middleweight Anthony Fowler - cousin of ex-England and Liverpool footballer Robbie - tipped as Britain's best hope for boxing gold in the Rio Olympics, two nasty head wounds in successive bouts. Fortunately he won both.

Anthony Fowler has suffered several head cuts in his World Series of Boxing bouts
©Getty Images

As I have said before, I am all for young boxers earning a crust and welcome the fact that they can pick up purse money for their pains in WSB without any prospective Olympic status being affected..

The Lionhearts currently sit fourth in Group A of WSB and their most intriguing fixture is yet to come - an away match in Havana on February 20 against the Cuba Domadores, the defending champions.

Now here is an interesting development. Diplomatic exchanges are not normally associated with boxing but those that have been taking place between the long-estranged Governments of the United States and Cuba may have a dramatic effect on the sport's future.

The indications are that the apparent thawing of relationships between the two countries following talks between Barack Obama and Raul Castro may result in the lifting of travel and work restrictions which have prohibited many great stars of Cuban sport from turning professional, most notably in boxing.

Cuba has always produced great fighter's since Fidel Castro's Communist Government took power in the early 1960s. But it has been impossible for boxers from the Caribbean island nation to punch for pay as professionals without fleeing into exile, and many did. That may be about to end.

Historic talks between US President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro could pave the way towards greater sporting collaboration ©Getty Images

To some degree, it already has. Cuba has relaxed its anti-pro stance sufficiently to enter the Cuba Domadores (which appropriately translates as Ringmasters), in WSB) with several of their Olympic prospects thus becoming eligible for substantial prize money.

In the past any form of sporting professionalism, from boxing to baseball in Cuba has been a no-no. Cuba has produced great fighters who have become world champions but have had to defect to do so, sometimes by hopping on a boat or clinging to a raft for the risky crossing of the Florida Straits to Miami.

Now the word is that under Fidel's more sports-friendly brother Raul this bar will gradually be lifted, and Frank Warren is one British promoter who believes that eventually we will see professional tournaments staged in Havana.

"The signs are good," he tells insidethegames. "Cuban émigrés already abound in boxing, names such as Guillermo Rigondeaux, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Yoan Pablo Hernandez and Rances Barthelemy featuring either as champions or high in the current world rankings.

"Another of them, Richar Abril, will be here on March 6 to defend his WBA world lightweight title against Derry Mathews on my BoxNation-televised show in Liverpool."

Abril's story further indicates how Cuba may be softening its hardline attitude towards professionalism.

A former top-class amateur with over 200 bouts, unlike those compatriots who can't return to Cuba, Abril is still able to go back regularly from his home in Miami to spend time with friends and family as several years ago the lanky counter-puncher won a lottery system which allows him to freely come and go.

Cuba, where the sport was prohibited until 1921, has one of the richest boxing histories on the planet. Fighters such as Kid Chocolate, Kid Gavilan, Jose Napoles, Luis Rodriguez, Benny Paret, Sugar Ramos, Jose Legra and Florentino Fernandez were major stars of their eras.

The legendary Gavilan, aka the Cuban Hawk, had 143 fights and was voted third greatest welterweight of all time by Ring Magazine, behind only Sugar Ray Robinson and Henry Armstrong.

While there have been some Cubans who have had to defect to the US and Europe to win world titles the majority have remained loyal to the Castro regime.

The most illustrious was the late triple Olympic heavyweight champion Teofilo Stevenson, as handsome as Muhammad Ali with a more devastating punch, which led me to label him "Castro's right hand man".

Teofilo Stevenson (right) pictured with Muhammad Ali in Havana in 1996
©AFP/Getty Images

He was around when Ali was at his peak in the Seventies and what a between them fight that would have been! But instead Stevenson went into politics, rejecting massive offers to turn pro because he knew it would have meant defecting from his beloved homeland, famously declaring: "What is one million dollars to the love of eight million Cubans?"

His successor, another three-times Olympic heavyweight champion, Felix Savon, similarly stayed amateur, as did the silky-skilled southpaw who pipped Amir Khan for the Olympic lightweight gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics, Mario Kindelan.

I suppose one question worrying the Cuban regime is how much incipient professionalism might affect an Olympic boxing programme in which they have amassed 67 medals of which 34 were gold. But no doubt they will have noted that Russia and its former satellite nations have not suffered too badly in this respect since opening up to professionalism, where they now also dominate many divisions in world boxing, from Wladimir Klitschko downwards.

So stand by Michael Buffer. The Cubans are getting ready to rumble - as doubtless we will see when they face our men in Havana.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for the Independent on Sunday and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.