Marco Verde Álvarez entered the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a clear goal: to win the medal his father, former boxer Manuel Verde, did not secure in Barcelona 1992. He succeeded, claiming the silver medal in the 71 kilogram final against Uzbek fighter Asadkhuja Muydinkhujaev.
“My father went to Barcelona and lost to a Frenchman, and here I am going to France. I am going for that medal for myself and also for my father,” Verde stated in an interview with TV UNAM before heading to the Olympic competition.
Verde’s debut in Paris was impressive, defeating Tiago Muxanga from Mozambique in the round of 16. He overcame India’s Dev Nishant in a challenging quarterfinal match and secured a narrow victory over British boxer Lewis Richardson in the semifinal.
“I never imagined I would be a boxer,” Verde reflected. He began his athletic journey not in the boxing ring but in the baseball field, playing as a child in Mazatlán, Sinaloa. Despite his father, Manuel “Sammy” Verde, being a well-known amateur boxer who did not want his sons to follow in his footsteps, Marco eventually embraced boxing.
“I just saw boxing on TV because my dad was a boxer, and he never wanted to instill it in me. He preferred that I be a baseball player, but one day he took me [to see boxing], and I simply chose it. I felt that this was what I had to do,” the 22-year-old shared in an interview with Olympics.com.
It was his own father who introduced him to training at the gym of the Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, where he met coach Radamés Hernández, who shaped Verde’s boxing technique. “My coach has always liked the Cuban style: hit and not get hit. He has instilled that style in me. Moving, hitting, and not getting hit—we have to adapt to each fighter,” Verde explained.
Marco Verde’s journey to the Olympics has been marked by success. He won a gold medal at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games after defeating Colombian Jhonatan Arboleda in El Salvador. He also claimed gold at the 2023 Santiago Pan American Games, besting Ecuador’s José Rodríguez by unanimous decision.
Boxing has a rich tradition in Mexico and is the second sport to have awarded the country the most Olympic medals, with a total of 14 to date.