August 5 2007

Guillermo (“El Chaca”, The Jackal) Rigondeaux, 25, Cuba’s top boxer and two-time Olympic bantamweight champion, and Erislandy (“El Oro de Guantanamo”, The American Dream) Lara, 24, amateur welterweight world champion — left to right in picture — arrive back in Havana after a botched attempt to defect. They disappeared on July 22 during the Pan American Games in Brazil and were arrested at a resort where officials said they partied and ran up an exorbitant bill. Fidel Castro says Cuba may pull out of the October amateur World Boxing Championships in Chicago. “Imagine all the sharks of the Mafia wanting fresh meat.” Lara defects in 2008 and Rigondeaux in 2009. Both build successful professional careers