Freddie Roach

Roach: Pacquiao won’t let up on Bradley until he surrenders

Roach: Pacquiao won’t let up on Bradley until he surrenders

As usual, trainer Freddie Roach expects Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) to score a knockout when he gets in the ring with WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley (31-0, 12 KO’s) for their rematch on April 12th. Roach thinks Pacquiao is new and improved after he rebuilt his fighting style following his loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012.

We saw some of the improvements in Pacquiao’s game in his win over Brandon Rios last November in Macao, China. And now we’re going to see some new changes in Pacquiao’s game against Bradley in their rematch at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Roach says that Pacquiao is going to go after the 5’6” Bradley and not let up until he either quits or is knocked out in this fight.

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Roach wants Pacquiao vs. Robert Guerrero

Roach wants Pacquiao vs. Robert Guerrero

Trainer Freddie Roach says that WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley isn’t a fight that Manny Pacquiao is excited about. He feels that he already beat Bradley in their fight last year, and doesn’t think the fight will bring in big pay-per-view numbers either.

With Bradley asking for more money than they’re willing to pay, Roach says that he’d like to see Pacquiao fight Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero if that fight could be made. Roach thinks it would give Pacquiao a good opportunity to show what he an against a fighter that was able to go the full 12 rounds against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year in May in Guerrero’s lopsided 12 round unanimous decision loss.

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Roach: Showtime/CBS will make Mayweather fight Pacquiao

floyd633Trainer Freddie Roach is thinking that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will be making a mistake if he fights Amir Khan next, because he sees that as a fight that will lose money for Showtime/CBS. Roach believes that Mayweather needs to maximize the money he makes with his last 4 fights on his Showtime/CBS contract, and the way to do that is to fight Manny Pacquiao.

“Showtime/CBS is in the business to make money,” Roach said to Radio Raheem. “They want fights like Pacquiao-Mayweather to be profitable. I think they need to make that fight happen. I think they will make Mayweather make that fight. We’ve accepted everything with the drug testing, so I don’t think there’s any more excuses for him not to fight us.”

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Is Arum Holding Mayweather Jr. vs. Pacquiao Fight Back? Roach Disagrees

roach67Over the past few years, performance enhancing drugs and money have been claimed to be the leading causes of preventing the Mayweather Jr. vs. Pacquiapo showdown form taking place.

For some time Mayweather Jr. was confident that his gut feeling of Manny Pacquaio using PEDs was, well, not a just gut feeling at all. He blatantly claimed that there is no way that a fighter can go up in weight so fast, while experiencing no decline in speed or power. After some time, both fighters ended up across the phone line, trying to come to some sort of an agreement, which ended fruitlessly, with Pacquiao asking for more money than Floyd was willing to pay.

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Pacquiao has three good years left, says Roach

roach1Trainer Freddie Roach thinks Manny Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KO’s) has found the fountain of youth following his incredibly easy win over one of Bob Arum’s Top Rank fighters former WBA lightweight champion Brandon Rios (31-2-1, 23 KO’s) last Saturday night in Macao, China. The win, a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision by Pacquiao, was enough to convince Roach that Pacquiao is as good as he’s ever been and able to fight for three more years before he should hang up the gloves.

Roach said to Boxing Channel “He’s got three good years left.”

There’s a problem when a trainer starts to get ahead of himself for a fighter that is getting up there in age like the 34-year-old Pacquiao. You can’t speculate that he or anyone will be able to fight for the next 3 years because things can change rapidly in the ring from injuries and the negative affects of the ring wear and natural aging.

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Has Freddie Roach’s plan backfired?

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Manny Pacquiao’s hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach would have liked nothing better than to see dissension in the ranks at Camp Rios. Freddie hoped the likelihood of that happening would increase dramatically with the addition of Alex Ariza to the team. Freddie made headlines when he fired Ariza from the Pacman team. Freddie explained Ariza was a disruption to training activities, a troublemaker who couldn’t get along with anyone.

An interesting point about this whole mess seemed to be that Manny expressed no dissatisfaction with Ariza; although, he did feel he had to honor Freddie’s wish and agree to Ariza’s dismissal. Therefore, Ariza got the heave ho. Soon after, Ariza latched on to the job of training Brandon Rios for his big fight against Pacquiao. When Freddie got the news, he apparently thought (and hoped) Ariza would have a disruptive influence with the Rios Team.

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Roach and Alex Ariza Make Pacquiao vs. Rios a Personal Affair, Adding Fuel To The Fight

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By now, most boxing fans have already heard of, or seen the video where Freddie Roach gets kicked by Alex Ariza in the midst of Roach arguing with multiple members of camp Rios over gym time.

The scuffle was aggressive in nature, with not only name calling, but race as well as Roach’s Parkinson’s disease used as verbal weapons. Alex Ariza went farther than most would, not only kicking Freddie Roach but also mimicking his speech stutter.

Roach and Ariza never worked together in harmony, and their professional relationship also ended in a bad fashion. Words were said, and there was an abundance of finger-pointing coming from both sides.

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Roach: Rios won’t last past the 4th against Pacquiao on Saturday

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Based on trainer Freddie Roach’s recent mitt workout with his fighter Manny Pacquiao, he’s moved his original prediction of Pacquiao stopping Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) by the 6th round to Pacquiao stopping him by the 4th round. Roach brags that Pacquiao was hitting the mitts so well that he had to stop the mitt work after just four rounds.

It sounds good but Roach was also bragging about how Pacquiao had his best camps in his last two training camps, and we saw what happened with Pacquiao with him losing to Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez. It just gives you the impression that Roach is like a promoter with the way he builds up Pacquiao, and he ends up with egg on his face when Pacquiao fails to look like the fighter that he once was 4 years ago.

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Freddie Roach Interview Transcript from Pacquiao’s Training Camp

roach1Good morning America and good evening to World-Famous Freddie Roach because it is 11 PM in General Santos City in the Philippines. It is very gracious of him to join us – he has a 4:30 AM run with Manny Thursday morning.

We are just 10 days from Macau – Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios in a 12-round welterweight battle which will be headlining a live five-bout pay-per-view card on November 23 beginning at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT. Also joining us on the call is Hall of Fame Promoter Bob Arum who is in Las Vegas.

BOB AUM: I just got up, but listen, I’m in better shape than Freddie because he is ready to go to bed – he has to get up early in the morning. So I am not going to waste any time – I’ll give it back to you.

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Roach: “Mayweather is in the Same Position Pacquiao Is”

roach45While I was sure that Mayweather Jr. vs. Pacquiao was nothing but a fantasy at this point in time, it seems as though Freddie Roach hasn’t yet let go of the possibility of the fight happening in the near future:

“Every big fight that was supposed to happen in boxing happens somewhere along the way, I just hope this one isn’t going to happen too late when they’re both washed up and not the same. I still have hope. Mayweather is in the same position (Pacquiao) is. You’ve only got eight fighters in the world that can sell pay-per-view and make money. That’s why I give it a shot,” stated Roach.

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