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DePina started boxing at age 15 after being bullied by older kids in his Santa Cruz neighborhood.
He made his debut at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, losing to defending champion Shakhob Zoirov in his first match. After returning from Japan, DePina was awarded the Olympic Solidarity Scholarship.
In order to improve his boxing skills, he accepted the scholarship at the expense of his personal interests.
He moved to Lisbon, Portugal, to train at the Privilegio Boxing Club in the suburb of Odivelas, but had to leave his then four-year-old daughter Helen behind in Cape Verde.
“Life is not easy in Portugal,” he explains.
“Those tough times made me stronger. This new identity doesn’t scare me because I know where I come from.”
The money the scholarship gave DePina was not enough to support his family, so in order to make a living, he had to work as a carpenter on a construction site while studying.
“The sad thing is, if I went into construction I wouldn’t have the time to train,” he said.
“I have to stop training to earn money to live or pay rent.
“If I was working in the building I wouldn’t have the energy to train because boxing requires a lot of sacrifice.”
His decision was ultimately worth it as De Pina won bronze at the 2022 African Championships in Mozambique and qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics for a second time by competing in Thailand.
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