Wild Card Gym

P

Pugilistic

Guest
Not sure where to put this other than the stand up forum but I thought the boxing forum would be a better place.

Anyway, I'm going on a trip to the US (California) next week and I very much want to visit the Wild Card gym in LA. I would love to get a photo with Freddy Roach or some other boxers. Maybe if I'm lucky I could catch Cotto which would be so fucking awesome.

The question is, do you guys know if it's acceptable for fan boys like me to just show up and take a look around? If I imagine myself in a famous person's shoes, I would be annoyed if people showed up to ask me for photos or autographs.

On another note, are there other gyms of famous fighters/trainers in the area?
 
No camera's/film allowed inside the gym... BUT, it only costs $5 to train for a day, so go live the dream.


IF there is somebody special there, the gym will be closed to the public, otherwise, I think if you asked Freddy for a photo-op he'd be amenable.

@ProBoxingInsidr where you at.
 
CatchnShoot said:
No camera's/film allowed inside the gym... BUT, it only costs $5 to train for a day, so go live the dream.


IF there is somebody special there, the gym will be closed to the public, otherwise, I think if you asked Freddy for a photo-op he'd be amenable.

@ProBoxingInsidr where you at.
Click to expand...
i think you pretty much have it covered. i actually have never been out to the gym, but i heard basically what you said. i think i have been blessed in that floyd's gym is easily the most accessible gym of any note. almost always open to the public and photos and video are encouraged almost always. i am going to get out to wild card in the next couple months though as i am set to expand my horizons
 
Thanks guys. I'll just show up and look around and ask Freddy if I can take pictures. If not I'll just be buy some merc and leave lol
 
Pugilistic said:
Thanks guys. I'll just show up and look around and ask Freddy if I can take pictures. If not I'll just be buy some merc and leave lol
Click to expand...
if you want to make the road trip to vegas i can arrange a good time at floyds gym
 
@Pugilistic what I understand is that Freddie has a private gym under the original wild card that’s for the stars like Cotto, so you probably won’t see someone like that sweating his ass off upstairs. But might find Freddie if he’s there.

I haven’t been even though I’m only about 60 miles away. I’m not quite in the form I was (it’s gotten a bit *ahem* round, I guess) but it’d still be cool to go. I loathe driving through LA though.
 
@opie sorry if I have the wrong guy but I think he used to train or knows a lot about WC and the goings on there. Maybe he can help if I'm thinking of the right guy.

Have a great time, bud. Just getting to visit a legendary gym like that is enough to scratch one off the boxing bucket list for us fans.
 
ProBoxingInsidr said:
if you want to make the road trip to vegas i can arrange a good time at floyds gym
Click to expand...
Dude, that would be fucking amazing, and I have toyed with the idea of going to vegas (and of course visiting the mayweather gym while i'm there) but I unfortunately won't have enough time. If I ever do another trip, I will definitely hit up Vegas and I'll hit you up.
 
Freddie is always there, and its true no cameras in the gym. But if you want to take pictures with Freddie, he will let you take pictures near the entrance facing away from the ring and other boxer training. I saw a lot of filipinos go in there to take pictures with Freddie.

A lot of fighters are there during the days and into the nights for sparring, celebs are there during the mornings when there arent many training. It gets busy after 3pm and if I remember correctly wednesday afternoons is when other gyms go there to get some sparring. They sell shirts there too for 25 i think.
 
Go check it out. Freddie is very cool. He takes pictures all day and will talk to anybody about boxing. He’s almost always there.

The downstairs is the private gym where most of the big name guys train. If he likes you he’ll give you a tour of it.

I’ve been going to wildcard for almost two years. I was there when Mayweather walked in to tell Freddie to train Conor McGregor for the fight.

I’ve seen countless amateurs and pros in there. Guys you won’t recognize but have fought/sparred big names in the sport.

The other day GSP walked in and shadow boxed just for fun.

You see a-b list celebrities all the time.

It’s become more of a boxing amusement park than a place that’s producing great fighters.

Freddie’s old and the Parkinson’s is getting worse. The trainers in there are all tired, broke, middle aged men training soccer moms and teenagers.

It’s also very small. It’s basically a boxing gym in a rundown apartment. They’ve expanded over the years.

It kinda feels like you’re in Freddie’s bedroom and it’s covered in his obsession with boxing.
 
I heard Roach is very moody and can be a dick, could be from the meds, but when the camera is on he presents himself as a sympathetic figure

 
TidWell said:
I heard Roach is very moody and can be a dick, could be from the meds, but when the camera is on he presents himself as a sympathetic figure

Click to expand...


Like always I would be careful to judge someone by what you "heard".
I dont know him on a personal level but what he showed in treating his fighters is imo that he is not greedy or a money whore like so many and has a code by whom he lives. If someone crosses that he can get "moody" but well who doesnt.
 
listrahtes said:
Like always I would be careful to judge someone by what you "heard".
I dont know him on a personal level but what he showed in treating his fighters is imo that he is not greedy or a money whore like so many and has a code by whom he lives. If someone crosses that he can get "moody" but well who doesnt.
Click to expand...
Roach is a master of manipulation, the guy is a jerk and greedy, when i say i heard its because i know people who used to train at wild card and be around him, they were there when he kicked macka foley and justin fortune out of the gym because bob arum signed the trainers fee to fortune who trained all of roaches fighters for eight weeks including pacquiao who was fighting solis, roach took the de la hoya trainer position because he would get paid 500 thousand for the mayweather fight.

Roach flew down to texas the day of pacquiao vs solis claiming manny pacquiao needs me in the corner, but a few days before the fight some interview asked pac do you need roach in the corner he said no im confident and comfortable with fortune.

Roach flew down from puerto rico to make sure to collect the trainers fee. Arum decided to sign the check to fortune, because he felt it wasnt fair for him to train manny for eight weeks and roach comedown one day to collect the fee. Fortune then started his gym with the money and they were not on good terms for several years, not until manny brought them together after alex ariza got fired.

Also look how Roach did marlon starling, Roach plays up the sympathy so he can get away with sly stuff he has hollywood celebs by the heart strings.
 
Any story that portrays Bob Arum as a “Good Guy”. Is suspect as fuck.
 
CatchnShoot said:
Any story that portrays Bob Arum as a “Good Guy”. Is suspect as fuck.
Click to expand...
who is portraying arum as a good guy? He had his own motive as well he was mad with Roach going to his enemy Golden boy to train and also got mad when Roach tried to tell Manny to come down to Puerto Rico to train with Oscar
Oscar if you recall had a lawsuit with Arum for basically signing Pacman off a red eye with a suitcase full of case, Arum won and got the rights to promote Manny.

Arum I recall said during the press conference leading up to the Solis fight that Fortune was capable trainer and he signed the trainer fee to him instead of Roach.
 
listrahtes said:
@TidWell

thx thats more insight than I had. Sheds a new light on him.
Click to expand...

I don't have anything against Roach he is a good offensive trainer, but the man gets so much praise because he trained Pacquiao and started getting shine and let it go to his head. He is just very good at public image and always using his parkinsons so people dont attack him, but he really has a mean streak, he even said he has a bit of his father in him and his father was a cold blooded heartless man.

Roach also did Michael Moorer wrong, he brought him in for the Pacquiao Hatton fight, and Pac learned more from fellow southpaw Moorer than he ever did under roach it was Moorer who devised the plan for the left hook roll under that Pac used several times with Hatton and the right hand feint to set up the left straight as Hatton rushed in

Roach got jealous, fired Moorer claiming the gym members got sick of him charging them one dollar everytime they leaned on the counter, the truth is Moorer was getting very close with Manny, he also got jealous of Ariza when people were praising him and Ariza and Manny were close as well he bought Ariza a matching Rolex and a MAserati and let Ariza and his wife stay at his home in the Philippines, Roach got jealous and made a comment that Manny never invited him to stay at his home, and he didn't like how Ariza was getting credit for Pacmans physical rise, he even slandered him and ruined Pacs image by saying I dont know what Ariza gives him in those shakes ever since that people were saying Ariza was giving Pac peds in his shakes, Roach does a lot of harm when he is in spite mode he wants all the accolades and all the glory

he also made up the story about how he met Pacquiao he gave it a storybook feel.

He wasn't the trainer, he just allowed them to train at wild card, Roach made it like a hollywod movie, Roach just let Pacman train at wild card and assigned Manny to Lenny De Jesus, Lenny had to work the corner as a cutman in Germany for a fight so Roach did Lenny a favor and cornered Pacquiao for the Ledwaba fight, Pac had two weeks notice, it wasn't until after that fight that Roach felt dam this guy is the real deal and basically stole him away from De Jesus.

Another thing, Roach never had confidence on Pac going into the Barrera fight, he claims he put money on Pac since Pac was a 15 to 1 underdog.

I believe that was the fight he was threatening to leave or did leave before training camp he had a beef with Murad Muhammad but , the only reason Roach came back to train Pacman is because Murad and Pacs manager were going to get Floyd Mayweather Sr or Roger to train him now, and Roach hates the Mayweathers so bad that he rather train Manny then let them train him so he just opted to continue to train him even though he had beef with Murad.

Also when Roach claimed he stuck up for Manny with Murad it snot true, Roach was mad that his cut was so small because Murad was underpaying Manny it had nothing to do with roach trying to look out for Manny, Roach made a quote saying how can I survive I have gym to pay for when it was found out Pacman wasn't getting the full 1. 5 million to 500k he was guaranteed for his fights under Murad.
 
Just watched ufc countdown. Tyron woodley is training at wild card with a wild card trainer called eric brown. Eric seems pretty cool, makes some good points on how to deal with a big rangy lefty like Darren Till.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,236,980
Messages
55,458,897
Members
174,787
Latest member
Freddie556

Share this page

Back
Top