Inspired by his compatriots Roberto Caminero "Chocolatico" Pérez, Enrique Regüeiferos, Félix Betancourt, and Rolando Garbey who also hail from Santiago de Cuba, he started boxing in 1966.

At the PanAm Games in Cali, Colombia (1971) he won gold against American Larry Carlisle, but it was not until he beat Betancourt at the national championships in 1972 that he was able to secure his ticket to the Olympics.

There he knocked out the defending champion Manfred Wolke of East Germany in the round of sixteen and defeated the rest on points to win Cuba's first welterweight boxing gold.

[2] Below is the record of Emilio Correa, a Cuban welterweight boxer who competed at the 1972 Munich Olympics: In 1974 Correa became the inaugural world champion at welterweight by knocking out American Clinton Jackson.

At the PanAm Games in Ciudad de México (1975) he lost a decision to Jackson.