Havana/“God ordered it to me.” This is what Cuban boxer Frank Zaldívar, alias The Dog, at the time of being arrested in the early hours of Sunday, April 5. Minutes before, he had stabbed the resident of an apartment located on Northwest 187th Street and 57th Avenue, in Miami. The boxer faces charges of attempted first-degree murder and no bail.
During the initial hearing, the boxer’s lawyer recommended he not make any statement about the events. Given this, the judge considered that the evidence provided by the prosecution was sufficient to determine preventive detention. In addition, he let the athlete know that he should stay away from the victim and “should not have contact, either direct or indirect in writing, by telephone or through third parties or social networks or any other electronic means.”
“Sad end for Frank Zaldívar, to whom God gave a lot of talent but very little peace of mind,” he summarized Willie Suarez in Cuban Boxing.
Although “it is not clear the immediate impact that this case will have on his boxing career,” says the journalist from The New Herald Jorge Ebrodue to “the nature of the charges could mark a definitive turning point.”
Zaldívar, 29, was identified by his fingerprints. According to Suárez, the athlete “has been detained several times in the past.” According to the file, the case remains open and under investigation.
The police report indicates that a witness alerted authorities about a man with a knife while arguments were heard inside the apartment. A second 911 call at 5:22 a.m. confirmed a fight and one person with chest and lung injuries, so he was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he remains in serious condition.
An employee at the gas station located at 5688 West Flagler Street warned of the presence of a naked man, covered in blood and armed with a knife
The authorities received another complaint. An employee at the gas station located at 5688 West Flagler Street warned of the presence of a naked man, covered in blood and armed with a knife.
Willie Suárez shared an interview with Zaldívar in which he assured that in the United States he planned to do what he knows: “box and continue being who I am.” The athlete expressed his disagreement with the regime and his fight for “the freedom of Cuba.”
The athlete was part of the Tamers in World Series events. At the age of 18 he won the bronze medal at the Playa Girón, the main annual amateur boxing tournament on the Island, organized by the Cuban Boxing Federation.
Due to his qualities he came to be considered another Yuriorkis Gamboa, alias The Guantanamo Cyclonefour-time world champion in three different divisions 126, 130 and 135 pounds.
According to what he told The New HeraldZaldívar left the Island because they made his life impossible in amateur boxing. “They didn’t give me options, they stripped me of victories and I told myself that I had no place there and that I had to go out and look for a better life.”
He debuted in 2019 with a fight in Costa Rica, followed by fights in Germany and Dubai, but due to contract setbacks he had to return to the Island until he contacted the promoter Henry Rivalta, who opened the possibility for him to emigrate to the United States.
He left a barely three-month-old girl on the island. “I need her here with me,” he said in 2022. “You have to be where your children are. My family is very important to me.”
