By Alfredo Echenique Lugo
03 Aug 2024, 14:26 PM EDT
The controversy surrounding boxer Imane Khelif continues to rage at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. After Angela Carini’s withdrawal after 46 seconds of fighting and accusations about the Algerian’s gender, everything has intensified.
Now a new testimony against Khelif has surfaced and it is that a former rival had already expressed a complaint about her fight in 2022. This is the Mexican Brianda Tamara Cruz, who faced Imane in the championship before the Women’s World Boxing Championship and after that fight she expressed her suspicions about her rival’s great attitudes.
Cruz even posted photos on social media showing the bruises on her face, stating that “she had never been hit like that in her 13-year career,” something very similar to what the Italian Carini said in just 46 seconds in the ring with Khelif.
In 2023, the Mexican boxer recounted a bit about her fight with the controversial Khelif. And it seems that Cruz had already warned about this situation and assured that she is glad that the world has realized this.
“When I fought her, I felt that she was out of my league. Her punches hurt me a lot. I don’t think I’d ever felt that way in my 13 years as a boxer, not even in my sparring with men. Thank God I got out of the ring well that day, and it’s good that they finally realized that,” said Tamara.
Khelif suffers from a condition called hyperandrogenism, which causes her body to produce more androgens than normal. For this reason, the International Boxing Association suspended her in 2022, but since Olympic boxing has been organized by the International Olympic Committee since 2020, it did allow the Algerian to participate in the event.
Keep reading:
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