By Steve Kim
As Joselito Velasquez, a highly touted 2016 Mexican Olympian, prepares for his professional debut, he is putting in work at the The Rock in Carson, California.
And he is doing so under the watchful eye of trainer Manuel Robles, who has a deep stable of fighters that includes WBO featherweight titlist, Oscar Valdez and junior featherweight contender Jessie Magdaleno, both of whom will be performing on the Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas pay-per-view undercard on November 5th at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.
On Friday afternoon, Velasquez, got in his first sparring session at the gym.
According to Robles,"It was great, he went four solid rounds with (Oscar) Negrete and you know he's a game, solid fighter, a well-experienced professional fighter in the boxing game. I saw a lot of good qualities in the kid."
Frank Espinoza was on hand and was impressed by what he witnessed.
"The kid looked good, I really liked what I saw. He's a fan-friendly banger with good skills. And let's see how it works out with Robles. Emanuel has a few of my other boxers and really does a good job with them. So I'm excited to see how this goes," said Espinoza, who said that he is still in the process of figuring out when his flyweight will make his pro debut.
Espinoza says he will be meeting with Akihiko Honda, the head of Teiken Promotions, next week to figure out a date.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.