By Steve Kim
After not coming anywhere near the contracted weight for his scheduled bout against Humberto Soto on May 9th at the Minute Maid Park in Houston, Frankie Gomez was in the doghouse with Golden Boy Promotions, HBO (which was set to televise his network debut on that night as the co-feature to Saul Alvarez-James Kirkland) and trainer Freddie Roach.
But in the past week or so, he has gotten back in the good graces with Roach.
"He was here all last week and he sparred three times with Miguel Cotto, gave him really good work," said Roach, on Monday morning at the Wild Card Boxing Club. "We had a talk, I laid into him a little bit but he understands. Listen, I like the kid, I still think he's my best prospect. I think he still has a huge future ahead of him. He just has to be at the gym more often and not take so much time off."
Roach admitted - "We were a bit short-handed on that weekend. I was with Jose Ramirez (in Fresno), Mavin (Somodio) was with (Glen)Tapia in New Jersey, so all that was a bit of a problem. But that wont happen again."
Moving forward, Roach has a new rule for his pupil, - He gets one week off after a fight, then he has to come back to the gym. When he becomes champion, he can take two."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.