Lucas Sáez-Bravo Madrid

Madrid

Updated Thursday, April 4, 2024-23:25

Ayoub Ghadfa

(Marbella, 1998) challenges the future and sees gold in August, at the Suzanne Lenglen in Paris. But the boxer also looks into the past and projects himself in

Uzkudun, in Urtain, in Evangelista

and dreams of following that broken trail of the great heavyweights in the history of Spain, idols of a country in black and white, giants who move like no one else. on a quadrilateral. Ayoub is now imposing, as they were, 195 centimeters, 105 kilos, biceps like cannons for the Olympic assault, a ticket at stake next May in the last Pre-Olympic in Bangkok. But Ayoub was not always like this. And that childhood of bullying in Marbella is tattooed in the soul with which he faces each fight.

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«My father was fed up. 'Do you want to learn to defend yourself?' » He now remembers those words that put him on the ropes, not so far from his childhood. «They bullied me at school. My father enrolled me in kickboxing. I was chubby, I was very big. If we played soccer, they made me the goalkeeper. "They excluded me, they messed with my ears, with my physique and I came home crying," he recounts the genesis of what is now his life. Well, with kickboxing as a base and a physical and mental strength forged in those abuses, in those constant insults - "they called me a shitty Moor, fat, long-eared... everything" - and in the racism that led him to ask his parents, of Moroccan origin, that why he was not white like them, became upon his arrival in Madrid - he was discovered by

José Valenciano

in his gym in the Argüelles neighborhood - to study the INEF career in a category boxer, who did not It took him a while to be recruited by the national team.

«I had a bad time, it was a hard time. They were always the same. Years ago we were not so mentally focused, you told the teachers and they passed. My parents were going to change schools for me. Once they threatened me with a cutter, the kid said he wanted to kill me. Then they expelled him. Now, I get along well with all of them. When you are a child you do things that you regret," continues Ghadfa, who a few weeks ago lost against the Italian

Lenzi

in the Busto Arsizio pre-Olympic, a controversial decision by the judges. «I clearly won the second round, but a judge didn't give it to me. He was a viable opponent and I put up a good fight, enough to win. But we are not perfect and there are things to improve. Let's work and learn the lesson », he reflects.

Ayoub Ghadfa.Angel NavarreteWORLD

Ayoub forms a brotherhood based on the noble art and the Muslim religion with

Enmanuel Reyes Pla and Gazi Khalidov

, two other Spanish boxers with Olympic desires. He admires the personality of

Mohamed Ali

and the punch of

Mike Tyson

. He is hooked on reading, on the trilogy The Gypsy Bride by

Carmen Mola

. And when he gets in the ring, he's fearless. «Up there it is a mix of sensations. The tension, the responsibility of not screwing up, of not taking a bad hit. When the bell rings, he gets his adrenaline pumping. "Sometimes you don't even remember what's happening," describes the person who won silver in the 2022 European Championship and bronze in the last World Cup, where he proved capable of being among the best with his footwork and his mastery of long distance.

Ghadfa, a graduate of INEF, confesses to being "obsessed" with the Games. «They change your life forever. You want it, you want it and you want it. But as my psychologist tells me, there are many factors and you don't have to lose your mind or be anxious. At the moment, there are already three Spaniards with a ticket to Paris (

José Quiles, Laura Fuertes

and Reyes Pla). Ayoub wants to be the fourth.