Emanuel Reyes Pla spent three years thinking about a rematch against Cuban Julio César La Cruz that will not come in Paris.
Reyes Pla, a Spanish of Cuban origin, defeated China’s Xuezhen Han 4-1 on Sunday to advance to the heavyweight quarterfinals, where he hoped to meet La Cruz. But his opponent was surprised in the first round and was eliminated from Olympic boxing.
At the Tokyo Games three years ago, La Cruz defeated Reyes Pla in the quarterfinals en route to becoming Olympic champion for the second time in his career, but in Paris 2024 he fell 3-2 to Loren Alfonso, a Cuban who now represents Azerbaijan.
“I’m happy because we took the first step and won the first battle, now we’re going with the second,” Reyes Pla said. “I knew that the Chinese was a tough opponent, I had sparred with him in France as preparation, but I came for the gold medal and I had to beat him to reach the final.”
The “Prophet” Reyes Pla defected during a trip to Moscow and arrived in La Coruña, in Spain, where he had relatives in 2019. At the beginning of 2020, he achieved the naturalization card thanks to boxing and the Tokyo Olympic Games were his presentation with the Spanish delegation.
In the quarterfinals, Reyes Pla knocked down La Cruz twice, but the judges gave the victory to the “Shadow” and ended the dreams of the 31-year-old fighter.
“Tokyo served me as an experience because there I left the decision in the hands of the referees and now I go with the mentality of ripping heads off and not letting them decide,” said the fighter.
Reyes Pla will now face Belgium’s Victor Schelstraete, who beat Samoa’s Ato Plodzicki-Faogali.
“The rival to beat is me, I don’t worry about the others, I am well prepared and as I said ready to rip the head off anyone,” he added. “We come a thousand times the preparation, I am going to continue giving sticks as I have always done.”
Reyes Pla would have run into La Cruz until the semifinals.
“I want to win the Olympics, that’s the goal and I’m going fight by fight,” the boxer added. “The draw was like this, I have prepared for all the rivals, not just for one, but if that person (La Cruz) plays, I hope for revenge.”
