Mexico City. The word Sinaloa echoes Marco Verde’s association with drug trafficking, the stigma that Sinaloans bear on the map of public opinion. Every time the Mexican boxer answers questions about his place of origin, the name that comes to mind for his rivals is that of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, leader of the main criminal organization in the state. “It happens to me not only in Mexico, but also abroad, in other countries. When they hear Sinaloa, the only thing they say to me is ‘El Chapo’, that’s how they know the state,” he says with the silver medal from the Olympic Games in his hands, the first in 40 years in this discipline.
“This is so that people see that not everything is violence. Neither I nor my trainer (Radamés Hernández) knew that it had been so long since the last time a Mexican had achieved it and was better, because we did not want to bear any pressure.” El Green, as he is nicknamed in the La Montuosa neighborhood in Mazatlán, is not unaware of the reach that organized crime has had in the north of the country, but like other great boxers in the world, including Julio César Chávez, he knows that he can change that image through sport.
“Since I was a kid, I remember that my father instilled that in me. At first I wanted to be a baseball player, but when I started boxing, at the age of 10, my father showed me the video of him fighting in Barcelona (1992). That was my dream. As the years went by, I knew I could win a medal,” he says.
Before Verde, the last time a Mexican had competed in an Olympic boxing final was with Héctor López in Los Angeles 1984, where he won the silver medal.
#Sinaloa #Chapo #sports #Marco #Verde
– 2024-08-22 09:33:17
