By Rick Reeno

Two-time Olympic gold medal winner Guillermo “The Jackal” Rigondeaux (5-0, 4KOs) reached out to BoxingScene.com to respond to a recent press release distributed by his manager of record, Gary Hyde. Over the last year, there was hostile legal battle over Rigondeaux's managerial contract. Hyde was able to win a legal judgment in December, and became the official manager of record.

Rigondeaux is scheduled to return against Reynaldo Lopez in an ESPN televised fight on June 4. The 7-time national champion tells BoxingScene that his manager is putting the fight in jeopardy. Hyde is trying to prevent the bout from happening, according to Rigondeaux.

"I feel terrible because I came here from Cuba looking for freedom. Because of a contract I signed in Cuba, for $500 dollars, I've got an order from a judge where the manager is telling me I can't fight. Basically I've been training for the June 4th date and ESPN has been great to me. I've been on ESPN four times. They have helped my career, so I don't want to lose this opportunity on June 4th," Rigondeaux told BoxingScene.com.

Last summer, Rigondeaux began working with trainer Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. Rigondeaux has nothing against Roach, but in his opinion he never received the proper attention because the hall-of-fame trainer was, and still is, working with too many fighters. Rigondeaux broke away from Roach in April. 

In the press release distributed by Hyde, the manager appears to be pushing for a reunion between Rigondeaux and Roach.

“The two have unfortunately parted ways,” Hyde said. “Misinformation and false accusations against Roach were made by people who have been controlling Rigondeaux. The truth is ‘Rigo’ left Freddie because Roach said he wasn’t in proper condition to fight April 10 because he’d been training only two weeks. ‘Rigo’ shared Roach’s apartment with Jose Benevidez, Sr. and Jr. and he received excellent treatment from everybody at the Wild Card Gym."

The fighter has no interest in a reunion. He wants to stay with current trainer Alejandro "Pupi" Torre, who worked with Daniel Santos, Juan Urango, Juan Carlos Gomez and several other champions. Rigondeaux had made it very clear that nobody, but him, selects the trainer. He is not exactly sure why Hyde is pushing for Roach to come back. Rigondeaux suspects there may have been some kind of a deal between Hyde and Roach, but again, he is not exactly sure.

"Freddie Roach is a great trainer, but he's got a lot of fighters and he wasn't giving me the proper time where I could work. I'm training with Alejandro Torre who had three world champions. I have a great relationship with him and it's working out good. I want to fight on June 4th. I have no problem with the judge ordering Gary Hyde to be my manager, but he's always telling me that he's got all of these multi-million dollar deals and nothing every comes to the table," Rigondeaux said.

"I'm 29-years-old and soon I will be fighting for a world title and we needed someone who gives us the time. I want a trainer who I feel good with. I need to feel comfortable with someone. And for them to take me to the gym and the right sparring is there for me. I need someone who will give his full time to me."

There have been plans laid out for Rigondeaux to fight for the interim-WBA super bantamweight title in August, against Ricardo Cordoba. ESPN is very interested in televising that fight. The situation with Hyde is not only putting the June fight in jeopardy, but the August fight as well. Rigondeaux hopes the situation can be resolved in order for his career to proceed on schedule.