Roach remains 'just Freddie'
Posted Dec. 12, 2008 at 01:10am
By Michael Rosenthal
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Freddie Roach was waiting alone for the valet to return with his car in front of a swank downtown Los Angeles restaurant on Tuesday night. He had just met boxing promoter Bob Arum to make plans for their trip to the Philippines next week to celebrate Manny Pacquiao’s 30th birthday.
Roach wasn’t alone for long. At least 10 people recognized him, stopped abruptly and shouted essentially the same thing: “Hey, you’re that guy!”
Yes, more than ever, Freddie Roach is “that guy.”
The soft-spoken former fighter who guided Filipino dynamo Manny Pacquiao to an historic knockout of the sport’s most-public figure, Oscar De La Hoya, last Saturday and became a star on HBO’s 24/7 is the toast of the boxing world and suddenly a celebrity.
Roach likes the attention but hardly gets carried away. “Let’s be honest,” he said, “it was Manny who did it, not me.” He’s definitely not the Hollywood type, which is somewhat ironic because his bustling gym – Wild Card Boxing Club – is near Sunset Blvd. and Vine Street in the heart of Tinseltown.
No, Roach is a grounded man by nature who happens to have done a remarkable thing – emerge from the tough streets of South Boston to become a successful fighter and then overcome the degenerative obstacle of Parkinson’s Disease to emerge as one of the sport’s top trainers.
And there’s no secret to his success. He’s worked long and hard and treated people well along the way, which seems to be his simple, but effective formula.
“He’s done it through hard work and diligence,” said Virgil Hill, the first of Roach’s many world titleholders as a trainer. “He’s paid his dues, inside the ring and out. And he paid a heavy price for what he’s accomplished and done in his life. That’s not an easy disease to live with.
“The fact he can get through that and do what he does … well, it really is amazing.”
***
Roach made the Pacquiao-De La Hoya fight happen as much as anyone. He convinced Arum that Pacquiao could win in spite of his size disadvantage, pushed to revive contract talks when they stalled, helped to sell the fight with good-natured trash talk and devised a brilliant game plan that Pacquiao executed perfectly.
It was Roach’s masterpiece, one that clearly brought him great joy. And even days later, he has trouble sleeping at night; instead, he lies in bed and relives the magic of that night in Las Vegas.
Still, he never considered wallowing in his success. He spent exactly one day – Sunday – celebrating and then went back to work. On Monday, as always, he was awakened at 6 a.m. by the sound of the ring bell (which is on a timer) in his gym. And he was at work by 8.
“I haven’t been working as closely with the fighters as I normally do,” he said Wednesday as the gym buzzed around him, the rhythm of speed bags and chatter of voices almost drowning him out. At least 30 people were working out, some serious fighters and others just getting exercise.
“I still need to settle down. I was back to work on Monday but I’m letting my brothers and sisters help out more. My arms are killing me from the last few months [of taking punches on mitts] with Manny. I only catch with (mixed martial arts’) Andrei Arlovski now because his fight is so close. I teach him how to box.”
To be clear, the days following Pacquiao’s victory have not been typical.
Marie Spivey, Roach’s energetic do-all gym administer, said the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since early Monday morning. Reporters are seeking interviews, fighters good and bad want Roach to train them and many simply want to congratulate him.
Roach said he’d done 24 interviews since the fight and was due to appear on Jim Rome’s television talk show that night. He doesn’t think the media rush will last long – “They’re giving me a victory lap, that’s all,” he said – but he’ll continue to do them as long as people ask.
Other than that, no one would know anything was different. This, not the excitement and glamour of the spotlight, is his everyday life.
He’s made millions of dollars in his career, including a $1 million payday on Saturday, yet lives in his modest two-bedroom apartment that is attached to his upstairs gym in a gritty part of town. His explanation: “I like to walk to work.” And the fact he was there on Monday surprises no one.
“That’s Freddie,” said his brother Pepper, another former fighter and an assistant trainer at the gym. “He makes a million dollars and comes to work again. Who does that?”
Roach does because he’s utterly devoted to his fighters.
Including Pacquiao, he works with a dozen of them. And none is more important than the next, at least in terms of how Roach treats them. He’s exhausted yet had a commitment to Arlovski, so here he was holding the mitts with sore arms.
Hill, who went on to win five world titles in two weight classes, was in the stable of the great Eddie Futch – Roach’s mentor – when Roach was still a fighter. Ultimately, Hill decided to employ the younger man as his primary trainer because Futch was busy with other fighters. Soon Roach, who had taken enough punches, retired as an active fighter to focus on Hill.
Hill was impressed with Roach’s work ethic from the beginning; he pushed himself as hard as his fighters. And it didn’t take him long to realize that Roach was a special person.
“He was always a guy you could talk to, a confidant,” Hill said. “He really cares about his fighters, about people. I don’t think he cares too much about money; I’m sure he’s been taken advantage of himself more than his fair share.
“With me and a few other guys, we didn’t even have a contract (with Roach). He never asked for money. We just paid him the going rate. That was uncommon even then.”
And Roach’s devotion doesn’t stop at professional fighters. As 20-year friend Bill Keane said, “If you walk off the street and into his gym, and if he’s not busy, he’ll work with you, hit the mitts, offer advice. I think it’s rare that someone on that level would do something like that.”
Or, as Lucia Rijker, a women’s boxing legend who worked with Roach for about seven years, put it: “He moved into his gym basically. What does that say about his commitment? He has no children. I think the fighters are his babies.”
Roach’s relationship with Pacquiao certainly is like father and son. The sweet-natured fighter has repeatedly said that Roach is as much a father figure as a trainer, which makes sense in light of the past.
When Roach first met Pacquiao, shortly before he won his first world title in 2001, the little Filipino was loaded with natural ability but Roach believed he was being mishandled by his promoters. Six years into his career he had almost no money.
Thus, Roach saw an opportunity to work with a promising young fighter and help someone at the same time.
“Manny was just a like a little boy outside the ring,” Keane said. “He was being taken advantage. He was in a (messed) up promotional contract and Freddie helped him get out of that. Freddie just likes to help people and Manny needed help, so it was a good fit.”
Today, their relationship couldn’t be more stable. Their affection for one another is obvious and, perhaps, one reason they’re such a successful team.
That devotion was questioned after terms were reached to fight De La Hoya when someone suggested that Roach was putting his fighter in a dangerous position against a bigger, stronger opponent simply to make money.
His reaction was an indication of his feelings for Pacquiao: He said he wouldn’t accept his $1 million payday if his fighter lost.
“There were a lot of naysayers,” Keane said. “They said things like, ‘Why push this fight?’ or ‘You’re overstepping your boundaries’ or ‘You don’t know what you’re doing.’ I think when Freddie made that offer it was an emotional response to critics who said he was just after money.
“I’m telling you: He loves Manny; he cares about Manny deeply. I’m sure that hurt him.”
***
Parkinson’s, apparently the result of brain trauma, is an integral part of Roach’s story.
He says he doesn’t think about it much. He does exercises and takes medication to keep the disease under control and does almost everything he’d do if he were perfectly healthy. He can’t run as he once did, but that’s about it.
On Wednesday, he said he had some pain in his neck as a result of the disease but was scheduled to have Botox injections that give him relief the next day. It’s just part of his routine.
Evidence suggests he simply doesn’t allow it to be a major factor in his life.
“I don’t think about Parkinson’s,” he said in a defiant tone. “The only time I think about Parkinson’s is when I haven’t taken my medication and I see myself on TV shaking. I get a little embarrassed.”
Others think about it.
Those close to him marvel at his rise from the projects of south Boston, one of seven children, including four boys who all boxed, to the pinnacle of his field. That he was able to get there in spite of the disease leaves them astounded.
Rijker thinks of her former mentor as a hero who is demonstrating that no obstacle is too big to overcome.
“A lot of people with Parkinson’s can’t work anymore,” she said. “They’re disabled. Not Freddie. He’s busy from early morning to late in the evening, training everyone from a house mom to the big champion. It doesn’t matter who it is.
“I have nothing but respect for him.”
Spivey, the gym administrator, gets emotional when discussing the disease. She started training at Wild Card eight or nine years ago and took over the administration of it about four years ago. Obviously, she is close to Roach, who she said is “one of the best men I’ve ever met, with a kind and warm heart.”
She doesn’t like thinking about his personal battle.
“I do worry about it,” she said. “I go with him to doctor’s appointments. It’s a little more personal for me. He works hard and gets tired. I can see it. He says he never lets it get in the way of what he wants to do and it doesn’t.
“I believe that someone who puts that much effort into not letting it get him down has a strong mind,” she added, her eyes filling with tears. “Freddie definitely has a strong mind.”
And a strong body.
Make no mistake: Roach is a tough guy. He had 53 professional fights, winning 39 but making his opponents pay with his bruising style even if when he lost. He once got into a street fight with Thomas Hearns, a thought that would send shivers down the spine of normal men. And imagine Manny Pacquiao beating on your hands every day for two months.
You’d never know he was a fighter by his demeanor, though. Everyone, it seems, loves Roach.
Reporters love him because he’s so easy to talk to and has so much to say. It’s like shooting the breeze with your nicest buddy who happens to be very knowledgeable about boxing, a subject about which he can talk for hours with great enthusiasm.
Apparently, that’s how his friends think of him, too. The words “sincere” and “genuine” were used repeatedly to describe him.
And he’s honest, almost to a fault. He was asked during the middle of the Pacquiao-De La Hoya promotion to name the most-talented fighter he has worked with, the assumption being he’d say Pacquiao. “James Toney,” he said without hesitation. “Manny works the hardest but James is the most talented.”
He’s not Brad Pitt but women apparently love him, too. Rijker said “women find him cute and sexy. Who doesn’t love Freddie?” Keane added that one might be surprised at how beautiful Roach’s female friends are.
“(The fighter) Juan Lazcano nicknamed him ‘Slow-approach Roach,’” Keane said, laughing. “He said that’s Freddie’s style. I guess women aren’t very threatened with his slow approach and he lures them in. I don’t know how he does it.
“He’s just really good with people and they just respond to him.”
Or, as Spivey said, “He’s just Freddie.”
Michael Rosenthal can be reached at theringeditor@yahoo.com
