By James Le Blanc IV: I’ve read countless articles making various suggestions for Manny Pacquiao and what his next move should be. Should he retire, or fight Marquez right away, or have a tune up fight before having a 5th fight with Marquez. What I have read very little about is the decline of trainer Freddie Roach and the terrible year he had in the year of 2012. Let’s reflect for a moment on the 2012 year of the Hall of Fame trainer who has won multiple Trainer of the Year awards by ESPN and the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Manny Pacquiao UD Loss to Timothy Bradley June 9th 2012-Title bout
Amir Khan KO Loss to Danny Garcia July 15th 2012-Title bout
Julio Chavez UD Loss to Sergio Martinez September 15th 2012-Title bout
Manny Pacquiao KO Loss to Juan Manuel Marquez December 8th 2012
And let’s not forget Freddies hand in the Historically Worst outing ever by a Men’s USA Boxing team in the 2012 Olympics in London, in which not a single fighter brought home a medal.
If you ask me, all the questions of retirement should not be pointed towards Manny Pacquiao but towards his trainer Freddie Roach who has displayed many of his flaws this year or at the very least proof of his decline. Was Freddie an incredible Trainer, yes, but just like Boxers, trainers lose their touch and are unable to get the desired results from their fighters. This decline really dawned on me when I was watching an episode of 24/7 and Freddie was waiting up all night for his fighter Chavez Jr. to show up to the gym and the kid never showed. I thought to myself, what hall of fame trainer sits up waiting for his fighter to show up? His fighter should be waiting for him and listening to his every instruction. But during Chavez Jr.’s fight with Sergio Martinez you can watch Chavez ignore Freddie’s demands to let his hands go during various rounds. This lack of motivation to listen to Freddie ultimately led Chavez to a brutal defeat.
As we enter 2013 Freddie doesn’t really quite have a year to look forward to. Amir Khan has fired Freddie and moved on to Andre Wards trainer Virgil Hunter. There are rumors that Chavez Jr. will fire Roach and move on to another trainer before pursuing his rematch with Martinez. Loyal Pacquiao will be facing Juan Manuel Marquez a 5th time instead of the mega fight fans across the world were hoping for and based on the way Marquez took care of business against Pacquiao in their last outing, there is a high chance that he’ll do it again.
It’s very difficult for people to see that they have lost their touch and exit the game on top. Some people stay in the game so long that they are just completely terrible. We have countless examples of this in the sport of Boxing. Maybe it’s time for Freddie Roach to walk away from a training career that not many other trainers can say they’ve had. All fighter and trainers need to take a look at themselves and their stature in the game, before we start to remember them for their failures instead of their accomplishments.
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