FREDDIE ROACH AND THE WILD CARD GYM

By Maloney L. Samaco

The term “wild card” in American slang refers to something unpredictable. The name perfectly fits the Wild Card Gym, in Hollywood, the ideal place to train Manny Pacquiao and other prominent fighters. The Gym makes Pacquiao “unpredictable” which converted him into an incredible fighting machine and the world’s number one boxer pound-for-pound.

Wild Card Gym is located at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Vine Street, in the heart of Hollywood, California. It is a small, simple, four-wall structure. The walls are posted with boxing pictures, fight posters, photos of famous boxers. The most famous poster in the middle of the gym is a black-and-white picture of a young Muhammad Ali.

Aside from Pacquiao, other prominent boxers who trained and honed up their boxing skills at the Wild Card Gym are James "Lights Out" Toney, Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins, Peter Manfredo Jr., Kahren Harutyunyan, Juan "Hispanic Causing Panic" Lazcano, Ana Julaton, Kingsley Ikeke, Rey "Boom-Boom" Bautista, Bobby "The Sniper" Pacquiao, Diosdado "Prince" Gabi, Z "The Dream" Gorres, Gerry Peñalosa, Dimitri "The Baby" Kirilov, O’Neil Bell, Craig McEwan, and Amir Khan. read more