When it came time to select the www.SecondsOut.com 2003 Trainer of the Year, there was very little debate. There was one man who was a part of James Toney?s resurgence back to the top of the boxing world and behind the upset that Manny Pacquiao unleashed on Marco Antonio Barrera. The man who helped get Mike Tyson into the ring finally, tattoo or no tattoo and helped Vitali Klitschko reach some of his heavyweight potential. This one man was involved in it all. None other than the former featherweight of 70?s and 80?s, Freddie Roach.
His Wild Card Boxing Gym in Hollywood, California is the home to many a good boxer. Roach has spread himself around with the harvest of many a hard training session finally coming in 2003. Toney?s wins over Vassiliy Jirov in April and Evander Holyfield in October launched him back into big time boxing after many critics had said that Roach was wasting his time on the former mid-1990?s pound for pound leader. The now 43 year-old also helped to plot one of the upsets of the year when Manny Pacquiao overthrew world featherweight king Marco Antonio Barrera by TKO11 in November. It was a systematic slaughter.
