Team Verdejo Bring in Nutrionists, Sports Psychologists For 6/11

By Victor Salazar

New York - Highly touted prospect Felix Verdejo (21-0, 14 KO’s) will make his return on June 11th as part of the Vasyl Lomachenko-Roman Martinez undercard on the eve of the National Puerto Rican Day parade. This will be his second time being televised on HBO as part that special date in New York City and his third HBO televised appearance in his career.

While many feel Verdejo is still one of the brightest prospects the sport has to offer, his last two performances have not been up to par for some observers. For his upcoming fight, changes have been made according to trainer and manager Ricky Marquez.

“A lot of things came to him really quickly,” Marquez told BoxingScene.com. “He’s dealing with that. It’s hard for a young kid to be in the middle of everything. We are handling this in a real professional manner. We are handling it with professionals. We have sports psychologists, nutritionists, and a group of professionals to help us. We just added it in this camp. So we’re excited to see the changes."

Verdejo will take on Juan Jose Martinez (25-2 17 KO’s), a fighter not familiar to fans. Marquez says the criticism is fair because of the expectations behind Verdejo.

“It’s hard because he’s in the spotlight,” the trainer said. “Everybody is looking at him for any mistake to criticize him but that’s a part of the sport in the developmental stage. Hopefully this fight and the other two fights, he has learned and is learning

Jose Felix was in the running to face Verdejo but rumors suggest that Felix priced himself out. To Marquez, he knows what has to be done in order to impress the fans and HBO executives.

“We really don’t care about who’s going to fight him,” Marquez said about Felix not being the opponent. “We are training him to fight anybody. If the company decided not to put Jose Felix in this time, we fight whoever they put in front of him I think he has to be Felix Verdejo and do the best he can. He has to throw a lot more punches, use lateral movement and angles, things he already knows. People will notice the potential he has June 11th.”