Floyd Mayweather Jr. once trained at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, CA. The same place that Manny Pacquiao utilizes to prepare for his fights.
It was the Fall of 2007. Mayweather was preparing to defend the welterweight championship against Ricky Hatton. Mayweather was coming off a career best win over Oscar De La Hoya and had made his way into the mainstream.
That fall he was a contestant on the ABC TV show Dancing With the Stars. The show was shot in Hollywood near Roach’s gym. Mayweather needed a place to train and did so at the wild card.
“Floyd Jr. I like. I’ve always like him. He’s a good fighter. He’s always respected me”, Freddie Roach said recently recollecting Mayweather’s time at the gym, “But I like Floyd and I let him work out here every night. He’d stay here from like 11PM to 1 in the morning. I let him have the run of the gym.”
It may seem somewhat surprising that Roach would be so cordial to a man who is his most popular charge’s biggest and most controversial adversary at the moment despite the fight that Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have not fought yet.
“There’s going to be some trash talking involved when he’s going to fight one of my guys and so forth”, Roach said, “I respect him as a fighter but I don’t respect that’s scared to fight Pacquiao.”
What about Floyd’s father who has constantly insulted Roach calling him Freddie “The Joke Coach” Roach?
“He’s harmless.”, Roach says, “His poems are a little bit foolish sometimes but he’s not a bad guy.”
Roger Mayweather?
“Roger is an asshole”, Roach says, “I wouldn’t let him into my gym.” He later added, “Roger is a piece of shit.”
With everything that has been said between the Mayweather and Pacquiao camps in recent months, it was interesting to hear Roach talk about the times they’ve crossed paths and his relationship with the Mayweather’s.
