By any measure, Cain Sandoval's boxing career got off to a tremendous start. He was young, undefeated, and beginning to gain attention among the sport’s hardcore with a series of impressive performances. Outside of a pair of decision wins in 2024, he had stopped every opponent he had faced; in his first outing following those decisions, he halted Romero Duno with a body shot to bring his record to 14-0 (12 KOs).
But he felt something was missing, that he wasn’t quite reaching his full potential. So he left his home town of Sacramento, California and headed to Hollywood to work with Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Boxing Club.
In February, he won his first fight with Roach, a crushing fourth round knockout of Mark Bernaldez. His second of the year will come this Saturday, he takes on fellow unbeaten Jesus Madueno at the Chumash Casino on Santa Ynez.
Sandoval says he is thrilled with his decision to fly south.
“Even before Freddie started training me, Marie [Spivey, Roach’s wife] told me that he loved watching me fight,” Sandoval told BoxingScene during a recent conversation at Wild Card. “She said, Freddie loves your style.’”
Now, in the midst of his second camp with Roach, Sandoval has become part of the Wild Card scenery.
“I love the atmosphere, being around other great fighters, being around former world champions,” he said. “I feel like I fit right in. Like a glove.”
Boxing serves as a diversion or salvation from a troubled path for many who try it, but the fight game was something different for the 22-year-old Sandoval: his family business. He fell into pugilism before realizing he was actually very good at it.
“My dad used to box back in Mexico, and my grandpa and even my aunts, my uncles, everybody boxed back in Mexico,” he explained. “So when my dad introduced me to the sport, just by watching pay-per-view fights – Morales, Pacquiao, fights like that – I wanted to box. But my mom and dad told me, ‘If you want to box, you have to do good in school.’ So, that’s what I did.”
Entering amateur tournaments as a youngster not only gave him the opportunity to hone his craft and box for gold, it also opened his eyes to opportunities beyond his hometown.
“When I went to my first nationals at 14, that's when I first thought: Is this the way to go? Is this my way out?” he recalled. And then, at age 15, he won his first national tournament and realized that boxing could be a genuine option for him. But he found himself having to learn patience and follow the path in front of him.
“When I was around 17, 18, I was seeing all these guys get signed [to pro contracts]. I was like, ‘Damn, I’m not gonna make it.’ Self-doubt kind of hit. I told my dad about it and he said, ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s all about timing. Don’t compare your career to their careers; they don’t compare their career to your career, so don’t do it.’ So I was like, ‘All right, more patience.’ I stopped comparing my career to anybody, because nobody’s been through the exact same things.”
Sandoval did of course end up with that pro contract, and now fights, as do Wild Card stablemates Callum Walsh and Gor Yeritsyan, for Tom Loeffler’s 360 Promotions. (All three will be fighting on the same June 21 card, with Walsh headlining.)
“As soon as he came down to the Wild Card, with all the sparring and training available to him down there, he literally was in a whole different world of preparation,” Loeffler told BoxingScene. “He's still a young fighter, so he's learning on the job, but he’s been getting some great work and definitely learning from one of the best trainers that we've seen in this era.”
Despite being unbeaten, earning rave reviews, and training with a Hall-of-Fame trainer alongside the likes of Manny Pacquiao during his ill-advised return to the sport, it has been far from plain sailing for Sandoval. He has left his family behind in Sacramento while he is in camp, including a four-year-old daughter who is battling leukemia.
“When I first came down here to camp, it was definitely playing on me,” he says. “I was questioning, did I make the right decision coming here? She would call me crying, telling me she missed me and wanting me to come home. I would call my manager and ask, ‘Did I make the right decision?’ But fortunately now, she’s doing better. The doctor says she can start school soon. She knows I’m here training, working. I’m doing this for her. She’s a real fighter.”
As her recovery progresses, Sandoval can focus increasingly on the task ahead of him, and for all that he has just espoused the virtue of patience, he also knows that time is finite and that his 140-pound weight division contains plenty of names worthy of being potential opposition. And he has his eyes on them.
“I’m a fighter, so I feel like I fight whoever they put in front of me, but it has to make sense,” he says. “Guys on the level of Arnold Barboza, Brandun Lee, Oscar Duarte: they’re out there and I’m ready for them. It’s just a matter of opportunity. And I hear, ‘You’re 22, take your time,’ and this and that. All right, I will. But also, I feel like I’m ready. I don’t call out people, but I’ll fight whoever.”
And as he surveys the posters and photographs of fighters old and new that adorn the Wild Card’s walls, he knows that he is in the right place to make his plans come to fruition.
“This was a dream as a kid, and I just feel like I’m healing my inner child doing this,” he explains. “I’m just grateful. I thank God every day, because some people would kill to be here. Plenty of people couldn’t believe I made the move here. They figured, ‘Oh, he’s just sparring.’ But no, I'm training here. Freddie Roach is my trainer. I’m really close to him, and I talk to him every day.
“I feel like it was meant to be. It’s the dream. I’m supposed to be here.”
Kieran Mulvaney has written, broadcast and podcast about boxing for HBO, Showtime, ESPN and Reuters, among other outlets. He presently co-hosts the “Fighter Health Podcast” with Dr. Margaret Goodman. He also writes regularly for National Geographic, has written several books on the Arctic and Antarctic, including most recently Arctic Passages: Ice, Exploration, and the Battle for Power at the Top of the World, and is at his happiest hanging out with wild polar bears. His website is .