By Jhonny Gonzalez
Gabriel Sarmiento, the former trainer of WBC middleweight champion Sergio Martinez, was recently paroled after being sentenced to eight years, in 2011, for a physical confrontation that took place in a nightclub in Guadalajara in 2008. When Saermiento was captured by Interpol in 2011, his brother Pablo Sarmiento took over as trainer.
Now Gabriel, who says he was never involved in the nightclub beating, is now talking with the press and says he was betrayed by his brother, and Martinez. Gabriel said he fled Spain when the conviction was coming down, just to continue training Martinez. But when he was finally jailed - he says Martinez and Pablo turned their backs on him. He also said he never agreed, or gave permission, for his brother Pablo to take over as the head trainer.
"I've been betrayed. It's the saddest thing that has ever happened to me in my life. It keeps me awake at night. Sergio never came to visit me in prison in Los Angeles, never. Pablo never did as well," Gabriel told Mundo D Sports.
Martinez responded to the allegations being made by Gabriel.
"When the moment comes to sit down and talk with Gabriel, I'll do it. What happens in the locker room, stays in the locker room. What happened to Gaby is not my fault. I, being one of the three or four best pound for pound fighters in the world, I can not have a coach who is in jail. I can not have someone who is giving me the instructions from there. My coach has to be working with me and if he does not understand that I sorry for him," Martinez said.
