By Lem Satterfield
The WBC on Saturday night honored Gabriel Sarmiento as its 2010 Trainer of The Year thanks to his guiding southpaw WBC emeritus middleweight champion Sergio Martinez of Argentina to respective victories over Kelly Pavlik and southpaw Paul Williams, respectively, by unanimous decision and second-round knockout in April and November.
During the banquet at The Palms in Coachella, Calif., Martinez also was named the organization's Fighter of The Year and bestowed an award as well for Knockout of The Year for his stoppage of Williams.
Sarmiento works with his fighters mostly out of The World Crown Sports Training Center in Oxnard, Calif., having also trained junior welterweight contender, Lucas Matthysse of Argentina, junior welterweight Victor Cayo of the Dominican Republic and, hard-punching super featherweight Javier Fortuna of the Dominican Republic. Calif.
Below is the acceptance letter written by Sarmiento, who could not attend the banquet because he still is in native Spain sorting out problems stemming from a March 4 arrest by the U.S. Marshals Service in relation to aggravated battery.
As a result of his arrest, Sarmiento missed Martinez's March 12, eighth-round stoppage of WBO junior middleweight king Sergiy Dzinziruk. Sarmiento's brother, Pablo, handled the duties as corner man for Martinez against Dzinziruk.
Gabriel Sarmiento's acceptance letter:
Before I begin to thank the WBC organization, I greatly apologize for not being able to be present to receive this great honor. Once more the American dream has become a reality. This is what I dreamt about 3 years ago when I arrived in Oxnard invited by the Garcia Family.
I dedicate this award to Spain & Argentina - from where I created a Hispanic-American boxing school, and the results of that are this award.
But to whom I most dedicate this award is to my team. They had to endure the hard and demanding work in such little time. To them I owe this award, to the team that I put together who I consider to be the best team of 2010 in the USA.
Thank you to Pablo Sarmiento, Cicilio Flores, Adam Flores, Dr. Anderson, Abraham Lopez, Roger Romo, David Sanchez, Nydia Flores, Victor Cayo, Ricardo Atocha, Sampson Lewkovich & Lou DiBella. This is "Team Maravilla Martinez". I give many thanks to this WBC organization for this award for recognizing the hard work & sacrifice that we put forth.
Thank you to all for making my dream a reality - Gabriel Sarmiento