Freddie Roach
Freddie Roach
Frederick Steven "Freddie" Roachis an American boxing trainer and former boxer. He is the enduring boxing coach of the eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao, five-time and four-division World Champion Miguel Cotto, former WBC Middleweight Champion Julio César Chávez, Jr., former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre, as well as top prospects Jose Benavidez, Peter Quillin, and Vanes Martirosyan. Roach was the trainer of former two-time world champion and notable women's champion Lucia Rijker. He has also trained former junior welterweight champion...
ProfessionBoxer
Date of Birth5 March 1960
CityDedham, MA
It's good because it gets him back in the gym, back into the mode of training for a big fight. ... Get him out of the pool hall a little bit.
It was nice having them in the gym, but ... Manny was performing for them more than for me. I wanted him working on technique and so forth. ... They've respected it. They realize it's for his benefit and they want Manny to win.
It was a close fight with a lot of close rounds, ... Morales landed the bigger punches but Manny landed more combinations.
I want him working more on his technique and not just going out there and putting a show on for the fans that come and watch him train.
And Manny was supposed to have a big suite, but Murad took the big suite for himself and put Manny in a one-bedroom suite that Manny had to share with eight other people. And he didn't get his tickets (for family and friends) for the fight.
It was a tactical fight and they were our tactics. The fight went the way we wanted it to go even though we didn't get the decision.
After this fight we'll take a week off and then we'll be straight back into Morales mode,
It means the most when your team always supports you.
I know when I first started working with Manny that he was something special. But eight world titles? No one could have expected that.
Mayweather likes to say he is better than Sugar Ray Robinson, but I think it is more important for him to keep the zero on his record than it is to fight Manny. We hope the opportunity comes for a fight with Mayweather, but Manny is going to continue to fight, even if it means moving up in weight to go after nine titles.
He fights with his heart and emotion. People say you should change him and settle him down. But this is what makes him exciting and you can't take it away from him.
We know Morales can take a punch, because Manny is a puncher and Morales took a lot of Manny's good stuff.