Hyde expects Rigondeaux-Donaire to happen before the summer

Irish boxing manager, Gary Hyde maintains a small but select stable of boxers that is headed by Cuban lynch pin Guillermo Rigondeaux, who is on the verge of a multi-million dollar super fight with the dangerously talented Nonito Donaire (provided Donaire beats Wilfredo Vazquez Jr next month).

Rigondeaux secured the WBA super-bantamweight title last weekend with an impressive sixth round stoppage of Rico Ramos, courtesy of his trademark left hook to the body.

In this exclusive interview with Gary Hyde (pictured), the wily Cork man talks about Rigondeaux's upcoming summer fight plan, the Cuban’s split from legendary trainer Ronnie Shields and provides an update on his other talented fighters – Mark Heffron (5-0), Dee ‘Wealthy’ Walsh (1-0) and Levan ‘The Wolf’ Ghvamichava (6-0).

Hyde also runs an eye over the challenges of developing more homegrown Irish talent in the face of the lack of TV opportunities for professional boxing in Ireland, most notably the loss of Irish state broadcaster RTE. First, we start with the talented Rigondeaux and his immediate fight plan: “We would like to get him out again desperately before the summer, we are going to get him out in April or May and we are looking at Donaire for that. Nonito Donaire name is being linked up with a fight with Rigondeaux so I think that is the fight we are going to be looking at before the summer. Donaire is a huge fight.”

Hyde revealed that he would be travelling with Rigondeaux to attend Donaire’s upcoming fight with Wilfredo Vazquez Jr for the vacant WBO title in Texas on the 4th February.

“I will be going to the States for the Donaire fight on 4th February and I will be going with Rigondeaux – so you can imagine what that is for! (Hyde laughs). There will be some glaring and we will be snarling at Donaire.”

Rigondeaux recently moved to work with fellow Cuban Ismael Salas [Salas recently split from Yuriorkis Gamboa] at The Heavyweight Factory in Fort Lauderdale, Florida prior to the Ramos fight and seems to have picked up from where he left off with Shields, developing a more aggressive pro style. “Salas just moved over as Rigondeaux’s coach ten weeks ago, he is doing a good job as well. To be fair Ronnie had started to tweak Rigondeaux just before he left him.

“He is gone from Ronnie now, but to be fair to Ronnie was directing him that way (more aggressive style), to get him more involved in fights and to be a little more aggressive and not be such a masterful counter puncher and evasive operator. Ronnie was working on him to get more involved.”

It was Rigondeaux’s decision to move trainers; he left both Freddie Roach and Ronnie Shields, despite Hyde’s best efforts to persuade the headstrong Cuban otherwise. Hyde takes up the story. “With Ronnie (Shields), Ronnie became like Freddie Roach. What I mean by that is that when Rigondeaux left Freddie I tried to get him back with Freddie and I pleaded with him. I said to him I would cut off some multiple percentage as his manager and give him an extra 3% just to get him back with Roach and he just makes up his mind and wants out of it and that is the end of it and then he went off.

“Then I got him with Ronnie Shields – who I picked. Then when he left Ronnie Shields, equally I gave him as much time in getting him back with Ronnie, but I just couldn’t. With the experience of when we couldn’t get him back with Roach – you knew when ‘no’ meant ‘no’. I knew when ‘no’ meant ‘no’ and I left it off. I mean Ronnie is a great coach and he is a lovely, lovely guy, a great guy.”

Although Hyde regrets the move away from both Roach and Shields, he still gave his dues to new trainer Ismael Salas. “To be fair to Rigondeaux and Salas they have gelled brilliantly. I don’t know if you heard the instructions that Salas gave him (Rigondeaux) before he went out for the sixth round (against Ramos). The boxing analysts that were commentating on Shobox, they thought that Rigondeaux would box away and move away and go backwards. But, what he (Salas) actually said to him (Rigondeaux) was to start getting busy and start getting to work and get this guy (Ramos) out of there and that is what he done.

“When I heard those instructions I knew that Salas from all his time working with Yuriorkis Gamboa, that he will know what Rigondeaux can do in the gym and what he can do at any time, you just push the button and pull the trigger and he can take anyone out.”

Also making the journey Stateside on the 4th February is Hyde’s Georgian fighter Levan ‘The Wolf’ Ghvamichava. Levan has been based in Belfast since he joined ranks with Hyde and in his six pro fights and wins, he has ended five of them early and most impressively was his last devastating performance against Giuseppe Lauri who was knocked out in two rounds.

Levan, who enjoyed a decorated amateur career wining the Georgian Senior title six times and a silver medal in the European Championships will arrive in Lowell, Massachusetts on the 5th February to resume his pro career under the expert eye of Irish Mickey Ward.

Presumably, a US training base will facilitate more opportunities for US TV exposure? “Yes - that and the fact that Georgians, they wouldn’t have a huge fan base (especially in Ireland). I think that Mickey Ward’s fan base and with his experience as a fighter and a trainer, I think they are a good match and it is a great move.”

An agreement with a US promoter will be the next logical step for Levan and appeared to be an outside chance of a berth on Lou Di Bella’s big St Patrick’s Day card, headlined by Sergio Martinez and Matthew Macklin. “Yeah, that will be an excellent card. Macklin is taking on the best in the world and I think he has a good chance. We will see, give that time. When we get over there with Levan he will be well established in the States, he will be over there working six weeks and he will be training with Mickey Ward and Mickey Ward (fighters) is promoted by Di Bella. So he (Levan) could be on that card – who knows?

“We have a couple of different options, but I will be holding on to him for a while and get him a few fights, maybe two more fights and we will be signing up for a promoter then. Another of Hyde’s exciting prospects is Lancashire’s Mark Heffron. Heffron is another fighter who excelled in the unpaid ranks winning a gold medal at the Junior ABA Championships and silver at the European Youth Championships. Heffron is a talented fighter who has already shown his qualities during sparring sessions at the Wild Card gym and has blown away four of his pro victims so far inside the distance (5-0).

Although Hyde did not reveal the card, he has earmarked a date of 25th February for Heffron’s first fight of 2012. “Heffron will be out at the end of February, we are still haggling around with a date, but it could be the 25th February – we asked Anthony Fitzgerald to fight him but he didn’t want to. So, we are going to be looking to get him a good suitable opponent in the next couple of weeks and getting him out on February. He is in great form, he has hooked with Arnie Farnell now as his coach and he has moved up to middleweight. He has grown up from welterweight as he has grown two inches taller and has put on a nice few pounds – he is only 20 years old and is in great form.”

The final member of Hyde’s quartet Belfast light middleweight Dee Walsh (1-0). “Dee will be out in February too, but he could have been on the Rigondeaux undercard, but he hurt his ankle sparring with Brian Magee. Dee is going to be very busy this year, we will be popping him out every four to six weeks.”

Hyde has successfully cultivated a growing stream of international networks for his stable of fighters, and this strategy will become a growing necessity given the dearth of shows that are being run in Ireland – North and South of the border. How much does it concern Hyde that there was a dearth of Irish shows in 2011 and the lack of television exposure in Ireland for Irish boxing? “If I had TV I would be running a show every month, you can’t have a backlog of shows and have no TV exposure, of course you need the TV on board.

“For the Irish (TV channels) ones, Setanta and TG4, we went through all of that crowd, you have to pay the broadcasting costs. For the world title show last year with Rigondeaux and Casey I had to pay RTE to put that on – it cost 45 – 50 grand to pay for the production and they got a free night of boxing. You know that defeats the purpose, TV is supposed to be paying us, paying promoters and managers. You can’t be the opposite way around and pay TV.”

At the moment Hyde has no immediate plans to grow his stable of boxers, but that would change instantly if he secured TV backing. “Four (boxers) is good for the moment. But if you had something like RTE guaranteeing you six shows per year I would be up that Irish High Performance Team and I would be whipping them out of there.”

RTE recently pulled out of Irish pro boxing, so for now Hyde will continue to cultivate his international networks and collaborate with promoters outside of Ireland. “That is why I have been paying attention over in the States. Unless you are doing something with the promoters over there like Hatton, Warren, Hennessy, Maloney or established promoters, unless you do something with them, you are not going to get a TV deal over there, it is going to be very hard for an Irishman going over there. But, like the States you have a good chance going over there, you can’t be a manager and a promoter over there, so it suits me to have the fighters over there and make some connections and have them fighting on the US stage.

“But, of course you would want to be at home, but who knows what the future will bring. In a couple of years time, when Dee Walsh is well up there a 10, 12 and 15-0 then you would have to look up getting TV in this part of the world anyway.”

The London Olympics is only a matter of months away, and expect more Irish fighters like Ryan Burnett – who recently signed with Hatton Promotions, to look for opportunities outside of Ireland, as they attempt to forge a career in the professional ranks. Despite the fact that boxing is by far the most successful Olympic sport for Ireland, there are little signs that Irish state broadcaster RTE has any plans to divert revenue from their sports budget to fund televise professional boxing.

For now, Gary Hyde has his sights on negotiating a super fight for his Cuban star performer Guillermo Rigondeaux.