By Miguel Rivera
Lightweight contender Félix 'El Diamante' Verdejo, 26-years-old, has made a lot of changes in his career, and there may be another one on the horizon.
According to Primera Hora, they were advised by three sources that Verdejo has begun a process to dissolve his contractual relationship with Ricky Márquez.
Marquez has served as the boxer's manager and head trainer since the Puerto Rican Olympian turned pro in 2012.
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes Verdejo, is well aware of the circulating information with respect to Verdejo making moves to break away from Marquez.
"It's the information I've heard, but I can't confirm or deny it because I haven't talked to any of the parties," Arum said to Carlos Gonzalez.
"We will not intervene because we want to respect the rights of each party."
The paper believes that Verdejo is dissatisfied with the current agreement with Márquez, particularly when it comes to the percentage of money he owes for each fight.
The law in Puerto Rico establishes that the manager can receive a maximum of 33% of the boxer's pay. A trainer's slice of the pot, meanwhile, is 10%.
After suffering his first career defeat last year, Verdejo brought in Evangelista Cotto as a co-trainer, and he also hired Memo Heredia to handle the strength and conditioning aspects in camp.
Márquez has had disagreements with other boxers in the past. Fighters like Christopher 'Pitufo' Díaz, Jean Carlos 'El Lobo' Torres and Henry 'Moncho' Lebrón were all under Márquez's care at one point or another, but eventually they all followed other paths.
Verdejo's career has been walking on quicksand since 2015 due to injuries and a motor bike accident. In the past four years, he took part in a total of nine fights for an 8-1 balance.