Sedangkan petinju Kuba itu tidak dibolehkan beralih ke kancah pro, sehingga ia membelot dari negaranya pada Desember 2006 bersama dua petinju juara Olimpiade lainya, Yan Bartelemi Varela dan Yuriorkis Gamboa Toledano, ketika sedang berlatih di Venezuela untuk mengikuti turnamen Pan-American Games di Rio de Janeiro pada 2007.
As a Cuban he was not allowed to turn professional but he defected from his country in December 2006, along with two other Olympic champions Yan Bartelemi Varela and Yuriorkis Gamboa Toledano, when training in Venezuela for the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2007.