Many of Texas's top boxing talent has journeyed out west to train at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy. Joshua Franco, Bam Rodriguez, Biggie Rodriguez, Hector Tanjara, and many others have called the RGBA home away from home. No double the biggest and brightest name of the bunch was Grand Prairie's own Vergil Ortiz. Ortiz has been training with Garcia for over three years and has gone from a teenage prospect to keep your eye on to perhaps the best young talent in the sport. However, nothing lasts forever and Ortiz and Garcia have amicably split. ESPN had reported this on the ESPN+ card this past Friday and originally reported that Ortiz had moved on to the "Canelo Camp" and was training with famed trained Eddie Reynseso, a San Diego-based camp. Ortiz denies the latter part but former Trainer of The Year Robert Garcia that Ortiz Jr and his father, Vergil Ortiz Sr had told him that they would be parting ways. Garcia stated that he thought the two of them were going to work together and was unaware of any connections to Reynoso's camp.
The famed trainer went on to say that the main reason that Ortiz expressed to him that there were moving on was that Garcia opted to train Joshua Franco in his world title fight against Andrew Moloney instead of Ortiz who had a homecoming date with former world title challenger Egidijus Kavaliauskas. Both men won and won in spectacular fashion. Garcia noted that he worked Franco's corner because he felt the young World Champion needed him there more than Ortiz did. Franco was fighting Moloney for the third time after the rematch was the subject of much controversy. Ortiz, easily disposed of Kavaliauskas after some early struggles. Garcia went on to say that the purse for Ortiz was 3-4 times more than Franco was paid so it wasn't a money-based decision.
Ortiz turned pro in 2016 at Indio California and disposed of Julio Rodas in the first round. He was trained by Joel Diaz, trainer of both Omar and Brandon Figueroa of Weslaco, Ortiz trained with him for a few years before switching camps and going to work in Riverside with Garcia. Moving on from camps is not uncommon and it wasn't the first time Ortiz did so. Making all the outrage and controversy a bit strange. Fighters such as Tyson Fury, Oscar Valdez as well as Maurice Hooker had all changed camps recently and two-time heavyweight champ, and perhaps the biggest financial draw in the sport Anthony Joshua is in the midst of switching camps. It's a fairly common practice in the sport of boxing.