By Paul Walsh: Two years ago Freddie Roach and the wildcard gym would have had the phone ringing off the hook and the offers flying in. With three world champions in the stable, it was the place every fighter wanted to be.
Fast forward the clock to today and the outlook is bleak for Roach. Saturday night at the MGM was the culmination of what has been a simply dreadful year for Roach and the wildcard gym. Having seen all of his champions beaten and one moved on to up and coming trainer Virgil Hunter, you cannot help but question Roach’s methods and tactics as a trainer.
Freddie Roach is one of the best attack minded trainers in the world, all of his fighters are involved in great fights, he likes to please the fans but this isn’t always the best method. Once he comes against a fighter with a good defence, great technique and a tight game plan he always seems to come up short. All of his fighters are the same, what they lack in concentration they make up in power, what they lack in footwork they make up for in speed and what they lack in ring smarts they make up for in explosiveness. This for me is a recipe for disaster because sooner or later they will come unstuck. You only need to look at Roach’s recent record to see that his number is up. He trained Oscar De La Hoya for the Floyd Mayweather fight and lost. Amir Khan was cruelly exposed by Danny Garcia as was Julio Chavez Junior by Middleweight King Sergio Martinez. In fact it was a boxing master class for the first 11 rounds only for Chavez to make a bit of a comeback in the final round. Finally Manny Pacquiao, the Pilipino great has always struggled against long-time foe Juan Manuel Marquez and this titanic battle ended in a devastating knockout win for Marquez.
Khan suffered the most from Roach’s training methods. Time and time again, you would see him get caught with the same punch due to his come forward nature, he would rely too heavily on his speed and fight with no ring smarts. You can say that this is down to the fighter and to an extent that is true but as a trainer your job is to mould your fighter and make sure they execute the game plan that was worked on in training. There are only so many times you can blame the fighter for your own shortcomings as a trainer. Chavez Junior, once again great speed and explosive power but with a leaky defence and a weak game plan he was picked apart by Martinez, losing every round bar one which at this level simply isn’t good enough. Even the great Manny Pacquiao couldn’t disprove my theory, probably one of the greatest finishers of the modern era. Always looks suspect defensively and would get hit way too often as Marquez prove time and time again.
This cannot be coincidence; it has to be more than that. For me it must come down to the game plan and the training sessions in the build-up to the fight. Who is responsible for that? The trainer.
It’s also no coincidence that Amir Khan has left Roach and the Wildcard gym. He states that is was a logistic decision but I think it is deeper than that and he realises that if he wants to develop and progress as a fighter he needs to move on. I fully expect him to demolish Carlos Molina in his next fight but not only that I think we will see a more refined Khan as he has all the tools to be an excellent fighter.
In closing Freddie Roach’s record looks much better on paper than it actually is. I believe he is a one dimensional trainer whose sole focus is on attack. Defensively he is inept and I wonder how much longer he has left in the game as his main charge Manny Pacquiao is in rapid decline and I do not think Roach is the man to resurrect his career.
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