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How Giovanni Cabrera landed a wildcard spot, sparring with Manny Pacquiao

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Lightweight Giovanni Cabrera is one of the newborn, talented fighters from Freddie Roach’s Wild Card boxing club. However, he was an inactive fighter three years ago after firing his longtime trainers and managers. Although he defeated several undefeated prospects during his development, Cabrera was given a chance by Roach and Manny Pacquiao.

The Cabrera-William Zepeda fight will take place on July 6 at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.

Cabrera (22-1, 7 KOs) has struggled during the pandemic. He parted ways with his longtime trainer Johnny Nocita and manager Sam Ditusa. Even though he didn’t want to give up, he didn’t know what to do. His inactivity caused him to drop out of the world rankings in his division. An unexpected encounter while looking for an apartment in Chicago changed his life.

“I moved to the south side of Chicago and the property manager said he knew Freddie Roach and said, ‘Kid, I’ll assist you set up a meeting,'” said Cabrera, 29. “So I went to Las Vegas to meet my uncle, Chuck Cameron, one of Freddie’s longtime friends who gave him a job in the 1980s when Freddie was boxing.

“I packed all my stuff in the car and drove to Las Vegas, hoping I would impress this guy who would set me up with Freddie.”

They went to dinner at the ARIA Resort & Casino and the meeting went well. After dinner, it was decided that Cabrera would meet with Roach.

“I showed up at the gym the next day – I think it was July 18, the day before my birthday,” Cabrera said. “Manny Pacquiao had just arrived for his last fight with Errol Spence [who was replaced by Yordenis Ugas]as I was driving to the gym. He was walking away. I thought, “Oh, that was pretty frigid, you know?”

Roach called him “Chicago kid” when he entered the gym. After a low introduction, they got down to specifics. Cabrera shared details of his undefeated record, achievements as a Chicago Golden Gloves champion and bronze medalist at the National Olympic Tournament in Mexico.

“He didn’t seem very impressed,” Cabrera recalled. “He said, ‘Well, if you’re good, you can stay. We’ll see what happens”.

Two days later, Cabrera learned the news. After a long break, standing in one of the most renowned boxing gyms in the world, he received vital news.

“Hey, Gio, Manny Pacquiao wants to meet you,” Cabrera Roach told him. “Maybe if he likes you, you can spar with him on Saturday.” Five minutes before Manny arrived, Pacquiao said, “Hey, Pacquiao just fired both of his sparring partners. He wants to fight you six rounds now,” which was thrilling and equally terrifying.

“I wasn’t dynamic for a year, then the pandemic happened, and here I am standing face to face with an icon.”

It’s vital to note that Cabrera also struggled with internal fandom. He was given the chance of a lifetime against someone who was a deep inspiration to him.

“One of the reasons I got into boxing was Manny Pacquiao,” Cabrera said. “It was like a scene from a fucking movie. It was unreal. I was scared as hell, my reflexes were working 100 percent and I gave him a good job.

“He hired me to be his sparring partner for the rest of the camp,” Cabrera said. “That really got me going. When I walked out of the ring that day, Freddie said, “Well, I knew two things were going to happen: either you were going to be as good as you said you were, or you were probably going to get knocked out.”

Cabrera hasn’t been shy about claiming how good he is as he prepares for his upcoming fight with Zepeda. The trial by fire, both early in his professional career and earning his Wild Card acceptance, strengthened the newborn player in a way he never expected.

“So,” Cabrera said, “that’s how I started working with Freddie.”

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Ryan Garcia ‘expelled’ by WBC after racist comments against African Americans and Muslims

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Ryan Garcia has become too demanding for even one of his biggest supporters.

The now-suspended boxer is no longer allowed to compete in any WBC-sanctioned events, both boxing and non-boxing. WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman took a firm stance following Garcia’s recent online meltdown, which included racist and Islamophobic remarks directed at African-Americans and Muslims.

“Using my authority as president of the WBC, I hereby bar Ryan Garcia from any activity within our organization,” Sulaiman said Thursday via social media. “We reject any form of discrimination.

“I’m afraid of [Ryan’s] well-being, as he has repeatedly rejected our attempts to get lend a hand for his mental health and substance abuse issues.”

The reaction came hours after Garcia (24-1, 20 knockouts, 1 win) spent much of the July 4 holiday spewing hate.

“I hate n***as, I’m anti-black, I’m KKK,” Garcia insisted during a live performance at X Space. “Yo, let’s go bring George Floyd back to life and kill that n***a again.”

George Floyd was an African American man murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020. The incident sparked riots that began locally and spread across the United States. Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for two counts of murder and one count of manslaughter.

The hosted space was where, as Garcia stated in X’s now-deleted post, “Fuck all the niggas and all the muslims.”

Garcia can no longer fight anywhere in the U.S. until next April.

The 25-year-old Victorville, California native tested positive for the banned substance Ostarine during his April 20 fight with Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs; 1 NC) in Brooklyn, Fresh York. Garcia earned a majority decision victory that night, although it was marred by the fact that he was significantly over the 140-pound weight limit. It was changed to a No-Contest following a decision in June.

Golden Boy Promotions, Garcia’s promoter, has yet to comment on the matter. The topic will undoubtedly come up during the events of William Zepeda and Giovanni Cabrera’s fight week. The weigh-ins will take place on the Friday before Saturday’s fight night on DAZN at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.

Ryan’s parents addressed the matter immediately following Sulaiman’s statement.

“Our son has recently made statements that are not true to his character or the beliefs of our family,” Henry and Lisa Garcia said in a joint statement released by WBC. “Our family unequivocally does not support any of his statements regarding race or religion—they do not reflect who Ryan is or how he was raised.

“Those who know Ryan can attest to this fact. Ryan has been open about his ongoing struggle with mental health over the years and as a family we are committed to ensuring and supporting him to receive the lend a hand he needs to navigate this very tough time and address both his immediate and long-term well-being. We appreciate your continued support, prayers and compassion.”

The request for lend a hand was met with a mix of sympathy and acceptance. Henry Garcia was criticized by Haney during a March 1 press conference after repeatedly calling Bill Haney, Devin’s father, trainer and manager, a “dumb son of a bitch.”

Henry Garcia also asked his son for lend a hand with alcohol abuse, recent interview with Fight Hub TV.

Ryan downplayed the gesture, claiming he had already stopped drinking.

Garcia can no longer fight anywhere in the U.S. until next April.

The 25-year-old Victorville, California native tested positive for the banned substance Ostarine during his April 20 fight with Devin Haney (31-0, 15 KOs; 1 ND) in Brooklyn, Fresh York. Garcia was declared the winner by a majority decision that night, although it meant he fell far brief of the 140-pound weight limit.

At this point, Garcia began exhibiting disturbing behavior, raising concerns about whether the DAZN Pay-Per-View event would go ahead.

Things got much worse after multiple positive drug test results were revealed, at which point Garcia sank even deeper. He has since fired his longtime aide, Guadalupe “Lupe” Valencia. Garcia called the high-profile attorney “Al Haymon’s puppet” during interview with FightHype.com.

In early June, a settlement was reached with the Fresh York State Athletic Commission after Garcia unsuccessfully argued that contamination was the cause of the Ostarine in his system. In fact, his efforts to prove it only raised more questions about whether the opened containers of supplements had been tampered with before being sent to the lab. Under the agreement, Garcia was suspended for a year from his April 20 fight, fined $10,000 and forced to forfeit his contracted purse of $1.1 million.

Follow @JakeNDaBox

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“We reject any form of discrimination.” Mauricio Sulaiman drops Ryan Garcia from WBC

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By: Sean Crose

“Using my authority as president of the WBC,” World Boxing Council chief Mauricio Sulaiman wrote on social media Thursday evening, “I hereby bar Ryan Garcia from all activity in our organization.” Garcia, a fighter now known for being controversial as well as processing lightning-fast power, reportedly erupted on social media in a tirade that included offensive language toward both blacks and Muslims. “We reject any form of discrimination,” Sulaiman continued. “I am concerned for Ryan’s health as he has repeatedly rejected our attempts to lend a hand him with his mental health and substance abuse.”

Thursday’s Fourth of July fireworks were the latest in a long line of shocking incidents involving the boxer known as “King Ry.” The 25-year-old frequently posts on social media that can often be perceived as odd or offensive. His April win over Devin Haney was ruled a no contest after Garcia was found to have traces of a performance-enhancing drug in his system. Garcia was recently arrested for vandalism in his native California.

Garcia’s behavior became so alarming that his parents themselves addressed the public on Thursday.

“Our son has recently made statements that are not true to his character or beliefs, nor to the true character of our family,” the statement reads. “Our family unequivocally does not support any of his statements regarding race or religion — they do not reflect who Ryan is or how he was raised. Those who know Ryan can attest to this fact. Ryan has been open about his ongoing struggle with mental health over the years, and as a family, we are committed to ensuring and supporting him to receive the lend a hand he needs to cope with this very challenging time and address both his immediate and long-term well-being. We appreciate your continued support, prayers, and compassion.”

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Jack Catterall is compact on time but remains an undisputed target

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Jack Catterall’s trainer Jamie Moore has admitted his junior welterweight fighter’s days are numbered ahead of his fight with Regis Prograis, but he still has a chance to become undisputed champion.

Catterall enters the Prograis fight without a single belt on the line, but is unlucky not to have all four. He could have gotten revenge on Josh Taylor in May, but that win didn’t secure any of the titles he should have been chasing in 2022.

However, with the current 140-pound landscape changing due to Ryan Garcia’s doping ban, Devin Haney’s year-long absence and Teofimo Lopez’s potential move to welterweight, Catterall’s trainer Moore believes the stars could align for his man to claim the belts he was wrongly denied.

“Eddie” [Hearn] he promised Jack [Catterall] after that, Moore told BoxingScene. “I have no doubt he’ll do it, whether it’s a vacancy, because Haney and Lopez might be vacant. Paro’s with Eddie, so it seems like a pretty uncomplicated fight to make.

“Becoming an undisputed champion is so demanding, and two and a half years ago that was taken away from Jack. Nobody ever expects him to get a second chance, with the way it’s opening up now, you never know. In the next 12 months it could actually work out that he gets options, if he can get in there and win a world title, to start getting involved in unifications. It could come full circle and he could get a chance to be an undisputed champion.”

Catterall has spent most of his career fighting to make the 140-pound limit. Moore has hinted at a possible move up to welterweight with the goal of becoming a two-weight world champion. But that’s all in the future.

“The main goal has to be for Jack to win a world title,” Moore continued. “If and when he does that, he can try unification, try to become undisputed again. If that’s not an option, I think we should consider moving up to 147 and moving on to pastures modern.

“He’s stocky and it’s tough for him to make weight, no matter how you look at it. I’d say the maximum he has is three fights at 140 pounds. I imagine that’s when it’s time to move up before it’s too delayed.” [We’d want] “Anyone who has the belts at 147 pounds, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, we’re just focusing on 140 pounds.”

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