Veteran trainer Ismael Salas has taken Puerto Rican boxer Felix Verdejo under his wing and will be serving as his head trainer.
Verdejo was a promising athlete before he faced the unexpected TKO loss followed by numerous lackluster performances which completely wiped out his standing as a fighter.
Reflecting on this, Salas declared “That type of recovery project is my specialty. That is what I did with Yuriorkis Gamboa, with Yordenis Ugás, with Jorge Linares. I like rescue challenges and Verdejo fits that mold perfectly. ”
Verdejo will join the trainers club of boxers in Las Vegas to begin training soon.
During this year, Verdejo (25-1, 16KO) is the second major project to have moved to the City of Sin in order to benefit from the coaching methods of Salas. Previously Olympic champion Robeisy Ramírez made the same choice.
“Verdejo reminds me a lot of the case of Linares, who came to me after many problems with his hand that distorted his technical pattern,” Salas recalled.
“We fixed his hand and then fixed his technique. Then came the victories and the world title. This is very similar. Verdejo had problems with one hand, but we will also fix it.”
“This boy has a lot of talent, and talent doesn’t go away just like that, it’s not something that suddenly disappears,” the coach added. “If he does his part, and I think he will, we will reach a higher level. There are no limits to what we can achieve.”
Verdejo is expected to return to the ring in January.
