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
On the first day of training for this fight, Mike already looked better than he did when he fought Etienne,
We love the Filipino crowds and it was great to have them there, but it got too much in the end. You couldn't breath in the gym, as more and more came each day.
We chose this opponent because he has a style similar to Morales', ... I think this fight will definitely help prepare him for the next fight.
My fighter is 100 percent ready and he is just two pounds over the limit yesterday.
One play was the difference in the game, ... That shows you. We were 10-3 and whipped alot of people that year. That just goes to show you can't take anybody lightly.
One of (Juan's) friends told me that he thought he made a mistake and wanted to come back. I told him all he had to do was pick up the phone and ask me, and that's all it took. I don't hold grudges at all. It's a good working relationship, which is what you need to have success.
If we don't win this fight, it's just because we can't.
My guy in the first fight was a little left-hand happy. In this fight, he landed a lot of right hooks.
I thought it was something I could go to the sideline and shake it off.
Manny's Filipino audience loves to watch him, but I wanted it to be more private so we could better work on going to the body and the other things we need to work on. Velazquez is somebody we definitely can't take lightly. Everybody's talking about Morales and the rematch, but there won't be a rematch without winning this fight. We've been working on a little bit of everything to make Manny more of a complete fighter.
Manny relied too much on connecting with that left hand of his (Pacquiao). He wanted a homerun.
(Marco Antonio) Barrera had beaten Morales, and Manny had beaten Barrera, and I just think Manny took him lightly, believing he was on the downside. But we miscalculated. We won't do that this time. Morales will still have the reach and height advantage, but Manny will have speed going for him. And he knows he has to win this fight.
Gabi is in great shape for the fight. He trained really hard. We had great sparring and we got some big punchers because we know Vic is a very big puncher and a very good champion, and a big favorite going into the fight.
He used his jab very effectively and so forth. We didn't expect him to do as well as he did. And he backed Manny up when he put Manny on the ropes where he didn't need to be.