Los Angeles – Hollywood’s Wild Card Gym will be a little less crowded as former amateur standout and super bantamweight prospect Guillermo Rigondeaux has split with trainer Freddie Roach.
ESPN reports that Rigondeaux has pulled out of his bout with Reynaldo Lopez which was to talk place in Sunrise, Florida on Saturday night and left the Wild Card Gym.
It is known that Roach is one of boxing’s most sought out coaches and trains such high profile names as Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan. Just this week it was announced that Roach was adding Anthony Mundine and Roberto Garcia to his ever growing roster.
Rigondeaux’s promoter Luis Decubas explained the fighter’s split with Roach in the following statement provided to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
“His feeling is he’s a two-time gold medal winner and he went all the way out there and felt there were too many fighters in the gym. Nobody was picking him up in the morning to run and he felt he should have been sparring with lighter guys, not 150-pounders. He wasn’t getting enough attention from Freddie. He’s very disappointed.”
This dynamic of a fighter leaving the Wild Card due to a perceived lack of attention is not a new phenomena. Several fighters have left Roach’s tutelage due what they considered a lack of attention.
Yet, what do these fighters expect when signing on with Roach? The Wizard of the Wild Card is constantly taking on new fighters and that is clearly not going to stop.
I imagine with his amateur and Olympic pedigree, Rigondeaux expected a little more star treatment and that is not what the Wild Card Gym personifies.
Rigondeaux is gone, but I am sure coach Roach will haven no problems picking up an other fighter to add to his stable.
