Dainier Peró’s existential second got here sitting on a rock someplace close to a distant island off the Bahamas. He sat there questioning, “I can’t consider that is the place I’m going to die.” This was the fifth time the Cuban heavyweight tried escaping Cuba and the fifth time he was captured. He was amongst 25 that the Cuban coast guard hauled in. Solely this time, Peró and the group have been banished to an remoted island as an alternative of a jail.
This was no resort. There have been no light lapping waves on mushy white sand, no hissing water because the tide peeled again. His ceiling was a black starry sky to curve underneath in nothing however a t-shirt and shorts and every part he owned stuffed right into a backpack.
On Saturday evening, the 25-year-old Peró, the 2020 Cuban Olympic tremendous heavyweight, will tackle Willie Jake Jr. on the undercard of the Premier Boxing Champions’ essential occasion on Amazon Prime between IBF junior middleweight titlist Bakhram Murtazaliev and Tim Tszyu, from the Orange County Conference Middle, in Orlando, Florida.
Suppose Peró (8-0, 6 knockouts) has any main issues? Suppose any heavyweight on the planet can stress him like the ten makes an attempt it took him to flee Cuba? Suppose his eyes don’t flip upon himself and see the imaginative and prescient of a thin Dainier on a seashore decreased to consuming bugs and consuming out of a rusted oil barrel that had washed on to the shore?
Peró was caught 9 instances attempting to flee. He received out on his tenth try.
Dainier Pero with supervisor and coach Bob Santos (Picture courtesy of Staff Pero)
“Oh, I believe again,” mentioned Peró via an interpreter, Diana Santos, the spouse of Peró’s coach and supervisor Bob Santos, The Ring’s 2022 Coach of the 12 months. “It’s motivation, as a result of while you come from the underside, you need to get to the highest and are grateful for something. Remembering what I’ve been via offers me that energy to maneuver ahead. I discovered a whole lot of issues. One: The poor don’t get sick. I needed to push via.”
Pushing via meant getting out of Cuba.
On his fifth try in late 2021, the Cuban authorities thought that they might repair Peró and the group that he was with. He was amongst 25, which included girls and babies. They weren’t returned to Cuba to be put behind bars. As a substitute, their punishment would come on an island for 5 days with out meals, water, or medical provisions. With out shelter, the blistering solar took its toll, however the group had palm timber to cover behind. What they didn’t have was sufficient meals and water that they introduced with them to final past two days. So, they resorted to consuming rainwater from an oil barrel, with the gooey remnants clinging to the underside. Meals grew so scarce they have been compelled to eat bugs. Peró, at 6-foot-5, 235 kilos, started to get determined, even eying the big rats on the island.
For days, Peró hoped a passing airplane would see them, or depend on the Cuban authorities to come back again for them.
“You would style the petroleum within the water,” Peró recalled. “I by no means received sick. I simply keep in mind being always thirsty. We ate bugs. We ate something we might get our palms on. There was some extent the place we thought of capturing an enormous rat and consuming that. We have been picked up (by the Cuban authorities) earlier than we had to try this. But it surely makes you assume. The water was capable of assist. By the fourth day, we thought they have been going to go away us there.”
He went to a desolate a part of the island. He waded into the water towards a bunch of rocks near the shore. He went up and sat on the rocks, looking on the ocean, and questioning himself if he ever was going to get out.
If not for Peró, a revered Cuban Olympian, the Cuban authorities would have left the group on the island.
“I had extra to nonetheless go on, however seeing three younger kids undergo bothered me,” mentioned Peró, who regardless of the insufferable hardships he has endured carries the disposition of a jolly large. “It couldn’t be any worse than after I was 12 when my mom died of leukemia (at 36). They pulled me out of faculty to inform me my mom (Luisa Justiz) died. It wasn’t stunning information as a result of I knew she had most cancers. I didn’t see her till the funeral. But it surely was nonetheless a really tough time for me, the worst time of my life, even worse than being on that island.”
Peró was raised by his paternal aunt, Daimi Peró. His father, Eunice Peró, nonetheless lives in Cuba. Peró says he speaks to his father a number of instances every week.
The struggle towards Jake (11-5-2, 3 KOs) can be an eight-round bout. The longest Peró ever went as a professional is 4 rounds. The 2 instances he went the gap, he didn’t prepare for these fights.
“Peró is greater than (heavyweight world champion Oleksandr) Usyk, he has sooner palms than Usyk, however the greatest factor is how a lot he desires it and needs success when he will get paid,” Bob Santos mentioned. “Proper now, his work ethic is nice. It should all come all the way down to how he’ll cope with success. He has each software within the shed to be the primary Cuban heavyweight world champion. He’s an even bigger model of Usyk. He has the velocity of a middleweight. He has no actual wear-and-tear on him as a result of Cuba didn’t enable him to struggle for 2 years. With heavyweights, they don’t mature till they’re round 32 years previous. He’s 25. He’s tremendous younger for a heavyweight. He’s a child for a heavyweight.
“Had he not been an Olympian, the Cuban authorities would have left his ass on the market on that island to die. Boxing saved his life in additional methods than one.”
Just a few days after his twenty second birthday, Peró lastly made it out on his tenth try. If he didn’t make it, he vowed to himself, he would by no means strive once more. Cuban coast watchers have been within the water. They noticed him within the boat, though for no matter purpose, they by no means stopped him.
“It was like a miracle,” mentioned Peró, who’s engaged on his U.S. citizenship and lives in Las Vegas. “Daily I’m so grateful to be on this nation.”
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Journal/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Affiliation of America.
Observe @JSantoliquito
