Last week a random set of occurrences happened. We sent our fight correspondent Marcos Villegas to The Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, CA last Wednesday. Amir Khan, one of boxing’s rising stars who currently holds one part of the junior welterweight crown was having a media day scheduled for his unification bout with veteran and champion Zab Judah on the 23rd of July (It will be on HBO for those of your interested). So the Fight Hub crew gets to the gym early because you never know who is working out at Wild Card. The usual crowd of media had already assembled when we arrived and as we make our way to the entrance we hear a stern voice tell us “Amir’s workout starts at 12, you can’t come in until noon.” We immediately ask why and security answers back “It is too packed right now.”
We found it extremely odd as yes Wild Card does get extremely packed though they always allow media in. So while waiting we notice two fans waiting with the rest of us media people. They immediately stood out as one of then had a pair of UFC gloves and the other had this framed picture. The Wild Card is home to top notch boxers but MMA fighters have stopped by from time to time in order to sharpen up their boxing skills. We asked the random fans, “Why do you have mma gloves, is their a MMA fighter in their?” The fan responded, “Yea, Georges St-Pierre.” The biggest grin took over our faces and it made sense as to why security would not let us in. Pierre had stopped by The Wild Card to get in a session with Freddie Roach while in town for the ESPYS.
When noon came around and were finally let in Georges was still in the gym, hitting the bag practicing his kicks. It was a odd site ad the boxing media had no idea who he was and the UFC welterweight champion was left alone while hitting the bag. Though Pierre told us he was in a hurry, he gave us a few minutes in which he shared his thought on his upcoming bout with Nick Diaz in October.
