I hope that overscheduled Coach Freddie Roach can just say no.
In a knee jerk reaction after Golden Boy?s shining prospect Victor Ortiz was knocked into submission by Marcos Maidana on HBO Saturday, Richie Rich Schafer began a conversation at ringside with Manny Pacquiao?s revered coach.
Eagle eyed Maxboxing scribe Steve Kim spotted the chat and said that it didn?t take a word balloon over their heads to figure out what the topic was.
If anything is sure in the 22-year-old Ortiz?s suddenly disconnected life and career, it is that Danny Garcia, the trainer from Oxnard who replaced his brother Robert and father Eduardo in Vicious Vic?s corner, it is that Danny will walk the plank.
Sure, Ortiz too the blame for losing the furious five knockdown bout, saying he didn?t listen to his ?coaches.? But that is hardly an endorsement, his saying he covers his ears when they speak.
In a wicked line, Kim described Danno as ?the third or fourth best trainer in his own family.? Ouch, I don?t think Kim will be getting invited up to Oxnard for the next Strawberry Festival.
Which gets us back to Roach. He?s already got too much on his fistic plate, having only 24 hours per day in which to work and live.
But Roach is now looked at as the Fixit Man of trainers or what firebrand manager Billy Martin was with troubled baseball teams.
Teams like Detroit and Minnesota, slumping badly, would bring in the rambunctious barroom brawler and umpire baiter as a tonic for their teams.
I covered the Martin-managed Yankees (he had five stints there) and I have to say that, unlike the usually placid Roach, Martin?s fiery temperament grated on his players after a brief time.
For ballclubs, Martin was a quick fix but never the longterm solution or answer.
Roach has one major reclamation project in tow already. That is England?s tarnished Golden Boy, Amir Khan, who is still shaking off a one round KO loss to a Colombian named Breidis Prescott.
Come July 18 in Manchester, Khan will try to dethrone WBA junior welterweight champion Andreas Kotelnik.
Why would Roach want to take another 140-pounder who needs an engine overhaul and might loom as a future foe for Kid Khan?
It must be pleasing to Roach?s ego, sort of being like the prettiest girl at the prom, that he is continually getting asked to replace other trainers.
I?m sure he is nearly always tempted to say, hell, yeah, I?ll take the job. Not so much for the money at this point but for the challenge.
But Roach knows that lessler lights than Maidana have floored Ortiz. And he is aware of how the Goldens have coddled the kid since they pulled a pirate move on Top Rank and stole him away from their promotional rival.
Roach is like Martin managing a world champion Yankees. He?s got the Mickey Mantle or the Reggie Jackson of boxing in Pacquiao.
Taking on Ortiz would be like stepping in for the Tigers or the Twins.
Just say no, Coach Freddie, just say no.
