Yankiel León Alarcón (born 26 April 1982 in
Jobabo) is a
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
n amateur
boxer best known to win Silver at the
2008 Olympics at bantamweight.
Career
Leon won gold at the World Junior Championships in Budapest, Hungary in 2000 as a light flyweight.
became senior national champion 2002 at flyweight then moved up.
At bantam he stood in the shadows of near-invincible two-time Olympic champion
Guillermo Rigondeaux
Guillermo Rigondeaux Ortiz (; born 30 September 1980) is a Cuban professional boxer. He is a former world champion in two weight classes, having held the unified WBA (Super), WBO and '' Ring'' magazine super bantamweight titles between 2013 a ...
who beat him eight times. When Rigondeaux was out injured in 2007 Leon lost at the national championships to
Yasniel Toledo
Yasnier Toledo López (born 15 September 1989 in Camagüey) is a Cuban amateur boxer from Pinar del Río who won the bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the PanAm lightweight title in 2011. He is a southpaw.
Career
After winning the 5 ...
.
After it became clear that the banned Rigondeaux would not be sent to Beijing Leon trained harder and beat archrival Toledo and Yurien Fabregas at the nationals 2008.
He lost to local Dominican
Claudio Marrero
Claudio Marrero Guzman (born 6 March 1989) is a Dominican professional boxer who held the WBA interim, and IBO featherweight titles in 2017.
Amateur career
Marrero was the silver medalist at the 2007 Pan American Games in the bantamweight d ...
in the first round of the ''Copa Independencia'' but breezed through his qualifier easily beating everybody including Marrero and fellow qualifier
Oscar Valdez
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
to easily make it to the Olympics.
He holds wins over
Yan Bartelemí,
Yuriorkis Gamboa
Yuriorkis Gamboa Toledano (born 23 December 1981) is a Cuban professional boxer. He is a former unified featherweight world champion, having held the WBA and IBF titles between 2009 and 2011, as well as the WBA interim championship in both t ...
and
Iván Calderón (PUR) among others.
Olympic Games results
*1st round bye
*Defeated
Kanat Abutalipov (Kazakhstan) 10-3
*Defeated
Worapoj Petchkoom
Worapoj Petchkoom ( th, วรพจน์ เพชรขุ้ม; ; born May 18, 1981) is a Thai boxer who competed in the bantamweight (54 kg) at the 2004 Summer Olympics and won the silver medal losing to Cuban superstar Guillermo Ri ...
(Thailand) 10-2
*Defeated
Bruno Julie (Mauritius) 7-5
*Lost final to
Enkhbatyn Badar-Uugan
Enkhbatyn Badar-Uugan ( mn, Энхбатын Бадар-Ууган; born 3 June 1985, in Ulaanbaatar) is a retired boxer from Mongolia who became the first Olympic boxing champion from his country when he won the gold medal in the Bantamweight ...
5-16
External links
*
Nationals 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Yankiel
1982 births
Living people
Bantamweight boxers
Boxers at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Olympic boxers for Cuba
Olympic silver medalists for Cuba
Olympic medalists in boxing
Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Cuban male boxers
People from Jobabo
AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists
21st-century Cuban people