SecondsOut.com is once again proud to announce Freddie Roach as their selection for Trainer of the Year. Roach has now claimed his third straight honor and fifth in the last eight years. Roach has now become even more dominant than his star pupil, Congressman Manny Pacquiao.
However, this award is not simply given to the trainer who sets up shop in the corner of the best fighter. While Roach twice guided Pacquiao to dominant victories in front of a total of nearly 80.000 fight fans in Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Team Pacquiao basically did what they were supposed to do. What made Roach stand out was the success he enjoyed from the corners of his ever expanding group of top level fighters.
While preparing Pacquiao for his bout against Antonio Margarito, fight fans were shown a glimpse of a potential fight that may loom down the road for the Filipino icon. Britain?s Amir Khan served as a sparring partner for Pacquiao, as Khan was preparing for his own title bout against Marcos Maidana.
When Khan was knocked out by Breidis Prescott in 2008, he sought out Roach at his Wild Card gym. Khan?s confidence was rebuilt while going 5-0, including a title winning effort over Andriy Kotelnik last July. In 2010, Khan stopped the slick Paulie Malignaggi in May; setting up his biggest test as a professional. Khan was set to face Maidana, the guy that may possess the division?s heaviest hands. Early on the fight was a mismatch in Khan?s favor. He was carrying out the game plan perfectly, and dazzled Maidana with speed of hand and foot. However, Maidana slowly closed the distance between the two, and seconds into round 10, he nearly closed the show. A right hand had Khan out on his feet. Somehow he survived what may turn out to be the most important two minutes of his career. Roach, who considered stopping the fight in the tenth, served as a calming force between rounds. Khan got off his stool, and gutted out the final six minutes to secure a decision victory.
Round 10 of Khan ? Maidana was not the only time Roach saw one of his fighters on the canvas late in a fight in 2010. In January, junior middleweight prospect Vanes Martirosyan stepped into the ring against former title holder, Kassim Ouma. Many miscalculated how much Ouma had left, but they were quickly brought up to speed, when he dropped Martirosyan in round nine of a scheduled ten. Martirosyan was able to dust himself off and win the final round to secure a unanimous decision. Martirosyan used the lessons learned from the Ouma fight and fought much better on the Miguel Cotto ? Yuri Foreman card from Yankee Stadium in New York. Martirosyan?s name has been mentioned as a potential foe for Cotto in March. Whether he gets his shot sooner or later, expect the former Olympian to be the next Roach pupil to challenge for a title.
Roach?s most impressive work may have been displayed by a fighter that had little amateur experience, despite having a legendary father and last name. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. finally showed signs of reaching his potential when he out-slugged John Duddy during a June bout for a belt created for the occasion by the WBC. Chavez Jr. out boxed and out fought Duddy over twelve rounds in a fashion that actually had non-Mexicans looking forward to his next fight. That fight was supposed to take place on December 4 on an independent Top Rank Pay Per View show. Citing illness, Chavez Jr. was forced to pull himself out of the fight. Not even Coach Freddie can win them all.
When Roach wasn?t busy holding the mitts for fighters in the squared circle, he also found time to find tune the boxing skills of some of the biggest stars of Mixed Martial Arts. Roach worked with Georges St. Pierre leading up to his UFC title defense against Josh Koscheck. A bout that matched up world class wrestlers immediately became a one-sided beat down. St. Pierre dominated the action and controlled the distance behind a sharp jab and lead left hook. The St. Pierre performance will ensure that the phone at the Wild Card Gym will continue to ring.
2010 may have been Roach?s busiest and best yet. The 50 year old Roach first entered the ring at the age of six. In October, Roach shared his experiences of growing up in a family of fighters, including his mother, who became New England?s first female boxing judge.
He told Playboy magazine, ??Tough household?She broke up one of our fights with an aluminum baseball bat. Hit my brother over the head with it twice?clang, clang!?
Roach retired from the ring at 26. He had failed to win a championship of his own, and left the sport bitter that he had little to show financially for a lifetime of dedication. He worked odd jobs in Vegas, including a stint as a telemarketer. He worked selling pens under the alias of ?Joe Davis?. Soon his former trainer, Eddie Futch, asked Roach to join him in his gym and serve as co-trainer. The rest, including his career as a telemarketer, was history.
Roach?s current workload is so impressive that it is easy to forget that he continually struggles from pugilistic Parkinson?s, a debilitating disease that may have been caused by his own wars inside the ring.
?Parkinson?s is part of my life?, Roach said in an interview on HBO. ?My doctors tell me that someday it could affect me where I can?t function as well as I do. And I said, well, until that day happens I?m going to work my ass off. I?m not gonna lie down and die. I?m a fighter and I?ll be a fighter til the end.?
The ?end? does not seem to be anywhere in the foreseeable future for Freddie Roach. Neither does his name being attached to awards. The Boxing Writers Association of America has honored Roach with the Eddie Futch Award for Trainer of the Year in 2003, 2006, 2008, and 2009, and he is on the short list for this year?s award. The only question is how long it will take until his name is on the award along side of the man who trained him.
WINNER: Freddie Roach
Previous SecondsOut.com Trainer Of The Year Awards
2009: Freddie Roach 2008: Freddie Roach 2007: Enzo Calzaghe 2006: Freddie Roach 2005: Billy Graham 2004: James ?Buddy? McGirt 2003: Freddie Roach 2002: James ?Buddy? McGirt 2001: Bouie Fisher 2000: Emanuel Steward
