Esquiva disputes world middleweight belt – 06/28/2023 – Sport

In 2021, during one of the most critical periods of the Covid-19 pandemic, Esquiva Falcão had to trade the rings for asphalt, boxing gloves for a helmet and fights for the motoboy journey.

He had just returned to Brazil after leaving the United States, where he lived with his family. Due to the health crisis, many events were suspended, and without fights, the boxer was no longer able to stay abroad, mainly because he had no sponsors.

At the time, the capixaba even considered selling the silver medal he won at the London Olympics in 2012, a hitherto unprecedented result for the country. He wanted US$50,000 (about R$250,000 at that time) for her.

“People showed up wanting to exchange the medal in a car, in a house, there was even a guy who wanted to exchange it for a bird that he said was worth a lot. But I didn’t want to”, Esquiva tells Sheet.

Waiting for the ideal offer, he and his wife, Suelen Marques, decided to set up their own business to sell mini pizzas. While she produced the food, the boxer was in charge of making deliveries.

“Knock out your hunger”, he wrote on social networks to publicize the service. More than clients, the publications gave visibility to the situation of the boxer, who had put his career aside due to lack of sponsorship.

“It was at that time that Lucas saw my story, got in touch with me to offer me the sponsorship. If it weren’t for him, today I wouldn’t be fighting”, says the boxer.

Lucas Hang is new business manager at Havan, a chain of department stores founded and chaired by his father, Luciano Hang, known for his close relationship with former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

“When I signed with Havan, many doors opened, but many doors closed as well,” says Esquiva. “Some companies didn’t want to sponsor me because I had closed with a company that supported Bolsonaro. People end up taking things to a side that has nothing to do with it.”

“It’s not because a company supports a politician that I won’t want to be sponsored by it. I’m an athlete”, he adds.

Although he now adopts a posture of avoiding political matters, during the 2022 elections he was very active on social media, expressing his opinions.

In August, when then-candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) gave an interview to Jornal Nacional, on TV Globo, the fighter questioned his followers if they had “fallen into the conversation” that the PT “wanted a better Brazil”.

Today the athlete avoids polemicizing. “I recognize that Lula did good things for the sport, like the Bolsa Atleta, which I received, and that helped me a lot. I know the suffering of an athlete. So, at the time I received it, it helped. Bolsonaro there are also good things, he defends the family, and I am evangelical and I value that.”

A more conciliatory tone is also a way to prevent political discussions from diverting your focus. Right now, he is focusing on preparing to compete for the world middleweight belt (up to 72.6 kg) with the German Vincenzo Gualtieri, third in the IBF (International Boxing Federation) ranking, led by the Brazilian himself.

The title is vacant, and the confrontation for it will be held on Saturday (1st), in Wuppertal, Germany. “It’s my dream fight, I’ve waited a long time for this.”

“It will be a very difficult fight”, predicts the boxer, undefeated as a professional, with 30 wins, 20 of them by knockout.

His successful trajectory, in large part, is the result of his father’s dream, Adegard Câmara Florentino, better known as Touro Moreno, a Brazilian boxing, MMA and telecatch legend. It was he who chose the name Esquiva for his son, a reference to the act of defending yourself by moving your hips, torso and head during combat.

Touro also built the first gym where Esquiva and the brothers trained. It was in the backyard of their house, in Vitória, Espírito Santo, without many resources. There were some improvisations, like using a banana tree to practice punching.

The result of Touro Moreno’s effort began to be recognized nationally in 2012, when two of his 18 children, Esquiva and Yamaguchi, shone at the London Games.

Yamaguchi won a bronze, while Esquiva, aged 23, became the first Brazilian finalist in Olympic boxing. He lost the decision to the Japanese Ryoto Murata on points, but the silver medal was a source of pride.

The performance of the Falcão brothers, added to Adriana Araújo’s bronze, made Brazil have what was its best result in the modality in an Olympic edition. Before them, only Servílio de Oliveira, bronze in Mexico City in 1968, had taken the podium with the Brazilian flag.

“After 2012, boxing came up again,” says Esquiva. “The modality was fasting for medals, and when the sport doesn’t have results, it ends up being forgotten, and it becomes more difficult to get sponsorships.”

This awareness is, in large part, his motivation for the duel with Vincenzo Gualtieri, a fight that could make him the first Brazilian Olympic medalist to also be world champion.

“I like the feeling of making history.”