Roach waiting for the next Pacquiao to come into his gym

By Boxing News - 04/15/2016 - Comments

roach432By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says he won’t be retiring from training fighters despite the loss of his number one guy Manny Pacquiao, who retired after his win over Tim Bradley last Saturday night. Roach’s career as a trainer soured after Pacquiao came through his door into his Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, California.

Having Pacquiao as one of his fighters has been like a huge billboard advertisement for the last 10 years, and it has helped attract a large number of well-known fighters to Roach’s gym to be trained by him. Roach is hoping that another Pacquiao will come to him so he can start in where he left off with Pacquiao.

Unfortunately for Roach, it’s not every day that you get a talented fighter like Pacquiao coming through your door to be trained. Whether Roach wants to admit it or not, Pacquiao was already pretty much the finished product when he came to him. You can argue the only thing Roach did was teach Pacquiao how to use his right arm. That’s something that any trainer could do, so it’s not as if Roach did something spectacular in training him.

“No!” said Roach to mb.com.ph, when asked if he’ll return from boxing now that Pacquiao is gone. “Why should I do that? I would be doing nothing for the rest of my life. Boxing is my life and I will live and die in boxing. Besides, I told you once before, you never know when the next Manny Pacquiao is going to walk through that door.”

Roach was very well paid by Pacquiao, and it’s obviously going to hurt now that Pacquiao is gone. There isn’t another money guy like Pacquiao. If Pacquiao could come back for one or two more fights, I’m sure Roach wouldn’t mind that too much. Having Pacquiao around is obviously good for business for Roach.

Pacquiao retired while he still had a lot left in the tank in terms of his physical boxing skills. His speed was still there, as well as his power. Yeah, Pacquiao lost some hand and foot speed in the last eight years, but he was still good enough to beat most of the fighters in the 147lb division. The thing that Pacquiao lost that was the biggest loss to his game was his right hand. Pacquiao didn’t use his right hand hardly at all last Saturday against Bradley. This is the same arm that Pacquiao suffered a shoulder injury in his previous fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May.

Pacquiao didn’t really injury in that fight, but rather he aggravated the preexisting injury. Pacquiao had surgery on his right shoulder less than a week after the Mayweather fight, and it looks like Pacquiao still hadn’t fully rehabbed his shoulder.

Either this was something that needed more time, or he was never going to be able to get the power and speed back with this arm that he previously had. Super middleweight Jeff “Left Hook” Lacy suffered a similar shoulder injury to his left shoulder many years ago, and he was never able to regain the power that he once had in it.

“As far as I’m concerned he’s retired,” said Arum to mb.com.ph about Pacquiao retiring. “You gotta move on,” Arum said, unsure whether the 37-year-old box-office king will have a change of heart. Let me know when he changes his mind,” Arum said.

Arum doesn’t have another Pacquiao to take his place as his money guy. Arum does have three potential candidates that could one day before PPV attractions and they are as follows: Felix Verdejo, Terence Crawford and Gilberto Ramirez. Out of those three, the 24-year-old Ramirez is arguably Arum’s best option to become a PPV star in the next four years. Verdejo, who comes from Puerto Rico, is more talented than Ramirez, but he doesn’t have the same built in fan base that Ramirez has in the United States.

Ramirez has the potential of becoming another Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in four to five years. He’s behind Canelo’s progress with his career because he didn’t get the early start that Canelo has. But Ramirez isn’t that far behind Canelo, and he’s currently the WBO super middleweight champion after beating Arthur Abraham last Saturday night.

If Arum can get Ramirez some important fights against the likes of Gennady Golovkin, James DeGale, and Badou Jack, he could be ready to become a PPV star if he beats those three fighters. That would make Arum a very happy man because he would have a money replacement for Pacquiao in Ramirez, who might wind up as an even bigger star than Pacquiao has been.