Cuban boxer Rances Barthlemy finds home in Las Vegas

Rances Barthelemy never lost hope.

Not amid some 35 failed defections from his native Cuba. Not during several arduous — sometimes torturous — stints in inhumane prisons. Not while starving on the coast, waiting for the boat that carried him to the United States and a career as a professional boxer.

“Every time (I) got caught, I told myself, ‘The dream doesn’t end here. I’m going to keep trying,’” he said through interpreter and friend, Irving Quinonez. “Either die trying, or make it out.”

Let’s go with the latter.

Barthelemy, 32, successfully defected in November of 2007, and has settled in Las Vegas, where he’s blossomed into a top lightweight and former two-division world champion. The 135-pounder will fight Robert Easter Jr. (21-1, 14 KOs) on Saturday at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas for the vacant IBO and WBA lightweight titles, thereby continuing the career that started in the streets of Cuba.

“It’s a crazy story, to keep persevering through different attempts, to keep trying to make it out,” Quinonez said. “His work ethic is incredible.”

The Escape

Barthelemy (27-1, 14 KOs) grew up in Havana idolizing his older brother, Yan, an Olympic gold medalist who also defected from Cuba — where professional boxing was barred in 1961. The sport for the younger Barthelemy was initially a hobby, but became a passion as he accelerated through childhood and adolescence.

He fought first in the streets and in his neighborhood, and then at the amateur level, accumulating more than 200 victories and a Cuban junior national championship.

But “in Cuba, you don’t have the ability to become a professional,” he said, and “I had that dream in mind that I would one day leave Cuba.”

Starting in 2006, he repeatedly tried to evade the spies, informants and authorities placed precisely to prevent defections, breaking through more than a year later in part by swimming through crocodile-infested waters.

He said he endured starvation on the coast while awaiting the boat, and nearly drowned while swimming to meet it.

“The one time I thought about really giving up hope was the last time waiting for the boat a couple days,” he said. “They got the boat closer, and someone in the boat reached out and saved (me).”

The Emergence

Barthelemy weaved through Mexico, reached the United States, settled in Miami and turned pro in 2009. He won 20 of his first 21 professional bouts — the other concluded in a no contest — and claimed the IBF super featherweight title in July 2014, all while assimilating to the nuances of American culture.

A la banks, credit and of course, English.

“It was just surreal,” he said, noting he is, in some ways, still adjusting to America. “I had only seen the U.S. in movies and stuff like that.”

Barthelemy moved to Las Vegas in 2014 and won the IBF lightweight title in December 2015. He lost a WBA light welterweight title bout to Kiryl Relikh last March, but still hopes to become the first three-division Cuban world champion and has since solicited training from Cuban legend Joel Casamayor, a former two-division champion.

“We all go through similar situations to get here. We’ve got to work 10 times harder than the average fighter just to get where we’re at,” Casamayor said through an interpreter. “I have a lot of pride in Rances, and there’s a lot more to come.”

Barthelemy visits Cuba once a year, and helps provide financially for his parents and sisters, who still live back home. He hopes to help them relocate to the United States in the near future.

Oh, and to beat Easter Jr. on Saturday night.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d be in this situation,” Barthelemy said. “I’m in Vegas. I feel like this is home.”

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Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @By”SamGordon on Twitter.