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Guess they don’t have a “Trainer of the Decade” Award at the Boxing Writers Association of America. But they should.
Coach Freddie Roach picks up his fourth best trainer of the year award Friday night at the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan and, per usual, I found the lively leprechaun from Boston brimming with confidence and anxious to get prize pupil and “Fighter of the Decade” Manny Pacquiao into training camp.
Coach Roach has done a remarkable job lately of keeping his mouth shut so as to not upset the Floyd Mayweather-Pacquiao Super Fight applecart.
Obviously, some others in the Pacman camp did not get the STHU Memo as dictated by promoter Bob Arumh but Roach has been cogent and careful in his recent public remarks on all things Mayweather.
If Mayweather spits the bit and refuses to sign a contract this time, Roach is ready to move on. If Mayweather balks, then the moving finger will write in the name of Antonio Margarito, it seems likely.
He told me the choice of the starting in August training camp will be either Cebu or familiar Baguio in the Philippines.
The new Congressmanny from Sarangani wants to stay relatively close to Manila so he can tend to legislative duties along with boxing and all his other business projects.
“I like Baguio,” Roach said Friday morning. “But I have a slight preference for Cebu. We have been there before and the city has the best boxing gyms in the country. But it’s up to Manny, of course, because I will go where he wants to go.”
Roach was busy penning his acceptance speech for the BWAA fete and said he still gets a thrill in taking the honor.
“It doesn’t really get old,” Roach said. “I look at the names of all the other great trainers and it makes me smile. I just don’t like giving speeches.”
Roach won’t be celebrating much after the dinner, either, as he sends his unbeaten prospect Vanes Martryrosyan and his 27-0 record in against hyped up but “well protected” (Roach’s description) Joe Greene in the Yankee Stadium/HBO bout which precedes the Miguel Cotto-Yuri Foreman WBA junior middleweight title bout main event.
“I feel Vanes will win every round against this guy,” Roach said. “I don’t think Greene is on the same level as my guy.”
Roach is the busiest top level trainer in the game as success builds upon success for the proprietor of the Wild Card Gym.
But, if Mayweather does not weasel out, Roach knows a huge task begins in August.
That’s when, in Cebu or Baguio, the ultimate Pacquiao training camp launches as trainer and fighter unite to do what many think impossible, to knock the elusive Mayweather from the ranks of the undefeated.
If Roach and Pacman can pull that off, I’m writing them in for “Fighter of the Century” and “Trainer of the Century.”
You pick the century.
