By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach still can’t seem to forget about how his fighter former WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. controlled his recent training camp with Roach, insisting on some workouts being in the living room of his rented home, skipping training sessions and having training done late at night. Roach doesn’t understand why Chavez Jr. did this for the most important fight of his career against Sergio Martinez and not for his previous fights against weaker opposition.

In an interview at Maxboxing.com, Roach said “Basically, we were powerless. [Chavez Jr.] wanted to be the boss and we [I] kinda let the fighter get away with it. So it’s a little bit our [my] fault for letting him get away with it.”

I like how Roach uses words that don’t directly point to himself. It kind of reminds me of how a politician would speak in saying things like “Mistakes were made” instead of “I made a mistake.” Roach obviously should stood up and set limits with Chavez Jr. so that he could he could have gain control over the camp. Letting Chavez Jr. dictate the time, location, and who knows what else in the training camp, but Roach in a situation where he was just a figurehead. Roach was more of a nominal trainer at that point than a real thing, because he was letting Chavez Jr. control the sessions.

It’s possible that if Roach had put his foot down that Chavez Jr. would have simply moved on and gotten another trainer, but at least it would have made Roach look better. I don’t think HBO’s Chavez Jr-Martinez 24/7 episodes made Roach look good with Chavez Jr. controlling things. If Roach had walked out, he would have spared himself being seen in the way he did on the 24/7 episodes, with Chavez Jr. in control instead of him.