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 had been banished to an remoted island as an alternative of a jail.
This was no resort. There have been no light lapping waves on smooth white sand, no hissing water because the tide peeled again. His ceiling was a black starry sky to twist beneath in nothing however a t-shirt and shorts and the whole lot he owned stuffed right into a backpack.
On Saturday night time, the 25-year-old Peró, the 2020 Cuban Olympic tremendous heavyweight, will tackle Willie Jake Jr. on the undercard of the Premier Boxing Champions’ major occasion on Amazon Prime between IBF junior middleweight titlist Bakhram Murtazaliev and Tim Tszyu, from the Orange County Conference Heart, in Orlando, Florida.
Assume Peró (8-0, 6 knockouts) has any main issues? Assume any heavyweight on this planet can stress him like the ten makes an attempt it took him to flee Cuba? Assume his eyes don’t flip upon himself and see the imaginative and prescient of a thin Dainier on a seashore lowered to consuming bugs and ingesting out of a rusted oil barrel that had washed on to the shore?
Peró was caught 9 instances attempting to flee. He acquired out on his tenth try.
Dainier Pero with supervisor and coach Bob Santos (Picture courtesy of Staff Pero)
“Oh, I feel again,” stated Peró by means of 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 if you come from the underside, you wish to get to the highest and are grateful for something. Remembering what I’ve been by means of provides me that power to maneuver ahead. I discovered a number of issues. One: The poor don’t get sick. I needed to push by means of.”
Pushing by means of 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 ingesting rainwater from an oil barrel, with the gooey remnants clinging to the underside. Meals grew so scarce they had 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 aircraft 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 acquired sick. I simply bear in mind being continuously thirsty. We ate bugs. We ate something we might get our arms on. There was some extent the place we thought of capturing an enormous rat and consuming that. We had been picked up (by the Cuban authorities) earlier than we had to do this. However it makes you assume. The water was in a position to assist. By the fourth day, we thought they had been going to depart us there.”
He went to a desolate a part of the island. He waded into the water towards a gaggle of rocks near the shore. He went up and sat on the rocks, searching 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 endure bothered me,” stated Peró, who regardless of the insufferable hardships he has endured carries the disposition of a jolly large. “It couldn’t be any worse than once I was 12 when my mom died of leukemia (at 36). They pulled me out of college to inform me my mom (Luisa Justiz) died. It wasn’t surprising information as a result of I knew she had most cancers. I didn’t see her till the funeral. However it was nonetheless a really troublesome 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 couple of instances per week.
The combat in opposition to 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 larger than (heavyweight world champion Oleksandr) Usyk, he has sooner arms than Usyk, however the largest factor is how a lot he desires it and wishes success when he will get paid,” Bob Santos stated. “Proper now, his work ethic is nice. It is going to all come all the way down to how he’ll cope with success. He has each device within the shed to be the primary Cuban heavyweight world champion. He’s an even bigger model of Usyk. He has the pace of a middleweight. He has no actual wear-and-tear on him as a result of Cuba didn’t enable him to combat for 2 years. With heavyweights, they don’t mature till they’re round 32 years outdated. 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.”
A couple of 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 attempt once more. Cuban coast watchers had been within the water. They noticed him within the boat, though for no matter cause, they by no means stopped him.
“It was like a miracle,” stated Peró, who’s engaged on his U.S. citizenship and lives in Las Vegas. “Each day 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
