Vito Mielnicki Jr. has reunited with the trainer he thought all along would be the perfect man for the job.
Vito Mielnicki Sr. told BoxingScene.com on Tuesday that the 19-year-old welterweight prospect and Joe Goossen have agreed to work together again. Goossen trained Mielnicki in the Los Angeles area in late in 2020 and early in 2021 for two bouts, before Mielnicki returned to his home in northern New Jersey to train with Muhammad Salaam, with whom Mielnicki previously worked.
The younger Mielnicki informed Salaam of his decision on Monday night. The Roseland, New Jersey, native will start training with Goossen again on February 28 in San Diego, where the highly respected Goossen, also an analyst for FOX, recently began training lightweight star Ryan Garcia.
The 23-year-old Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) surprisingly announced Friday night on social media that he hired Goossen to replace Eddy Reynoso, Canelo Alvarez’s trainer, for his fight against Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe (32-1, 15 KOs) on April 9 at Alamodome in San Antonio.
Mielnicki, meanwhile, is scheduled to return to the ring April 16 on the Errol Spence Jr.-Yordenis Ugas undercard at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. His opponent for that eight-round bout hadn’t been determined as of Tuesday morning.
“We know it’s the right thing for Vito to go back to Joe,” Mielnicki Sr. said. “He was just too young the first time [17]. But Joe and Vito stayed in close contact ever since he came back home to train. Joe is a great trainer and a great person. We’re looking forward to them working together again. It’s nothing against Muhammad. He did a great job with Vito. He thank Muhammad for everything he did for him. But Vito knows he needs to learn the inside game and become an inside fighter. Joe will make that happen.”
Mielnicki (10-1, 7 KOs) stopped Nicholas DeLomba in 10th round of his most recent fight, a main event FOX aired Christmas night from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
It appeared as though Mielnicki might knock out Rhode Island’s DeLomba (16-4, 5 KOs) in the third round. That’s when Mielnicki suffered a slight tear to his right biceps, however, which prohibited him from throwing many right hands over the course of the ensuing seven rounds.
Mielnicki’s injury didn’t require surgery, thus he rested it for six weeks before he returned to the gym last week.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.