Freddie Roach is not only renowned for being the top notch boxing trainer who guided Manny Pacquiao all the way to winning seven world titles in seven divisions, but he is even more revered for his nostradamic (word coined) gift at giving accurate predictions regarding the fate of most of the opponents of his best pupil from General Santos City, Philippines. Previously his success at predicting the eventual demise of Cotto, Hatton and the great Oscar dela Hoya at the hands of the current pound for pound king caught the interested attention of everybody who had strong affinity for boxing, writers in particular. They called him the Nostradamus of boxing.
At first, as Pacquiao was scheduled to battle Joshua Clottey, a former world champion, Roach initially foretold his ward will not be able to impose his routine of knocking out opponents on the native of Accra, Ghana. Clottey is known to be a very good fighter and a wizard at defense. In addition to his formidable fighting arsenal, Clottey’s physical make up is unquestionably strong, like a newly planted electrical post. Pacquiao will win by decision, was Roach early forecast months leading to the fight.
However as Pacquiao’s training went on at Freddie Roach’s world class Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, and the day of reckoning becoming closer to the fight day on March 13 at the imposing Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the great boxing teacher changed his opinion, stating that Pacquiao will be the first to stop Clottey, albeit in the late rounds, in the 9th or 10th. Impressed more by Pacquiao’s ever improving performance against worthy sparring partners, Roach lowered his prediction down to the 7th or 8th round days before the fight. At large, Roach extensive and diligent study of Clottey’s previous fights must have contributed greatly to his change in opinion; he was aware of Clottey’s nearly impervious defense, but he had as well conceived the blue print on how to hit and knock Clottey out earlier once he let his hands go to launch his own heavy artillery in a confident and capable campaign to unseat Pacquiao from his lofty throne as the WBO world welterweight champion and the pound for pound king. It is the desire after all of every fighter to become champion and famous, and Clottey squaring off with Pacquiao was a chance of a lifetime. In case of victory, he would have become a household name among boxing – loving nations in the world. Sigmund Freud, the legendary Austrian behaviorist once remarked that it is human nature to desire to become famous;Clottey and Roach are no exceptions to it. Thereby the greatest boxing teacher of the modern era assumed Clottey would engage Pacquiao in a real and intense fight of which Roach believed the superior speed and power of Pacquiao would thwart Clottey’s road to stardom by way of knockout in the middle rounds.
To the disappointment of Roach, Clottey did not lodge a serious fight with winning intention; instead he humbled himself in front of the fighter whose name is heading to the list of top five greatest prize fighters of all time. Perhaps the horrible sight of the brutal downfall of Morales, Diaz, Hatton, dela Hoya and Cotto and all other marquee fighters at the hands of Pacquiao made Clottey abandoned his craving for fame. So against Pacquiao, although his credibility as a warrior was on the line, Clottey opted to fight for survival from being possibly brutalized and get knockout by employing the so called turtle defense, with which he is an expert. It paid him off, but at the expense of his reputation and probable victory that would have propelled him to the stars.
In truth Clottey had insinuated he will never go down because Pacquiao cannot knock him out with punches. “Out of 10 punches that Pacquiao will throw I will block nine,” Clottey said. This is quite indicative that he had prior plan not to engage Pacquiao, climbing the ring with very less or no desire to win at all. True to his words, Pacquiao could not hit him cleanly on the face, but the burly hands, which were seemed to be transplanted vertically on Clottey’s face, depriving him of possible victory, but serving him well so as not to loss via humiliating knockout. To top it all, Clottey succeeded to prove all his detractors wrong, including Freddie Roach who might have missed to consider that Clottey might just come to survive, staying on his feet the entire duration of the fight rather than trying to win. But then again what was done by Clottey was against boxing truth – that is to fight and aim for victory. After all he chose to identify himself as a professional fighter.
