During his recent stop in New York, Freddie Roach, famed trainer of Manny Pacquiao, discussed his role with the U.S. Olympic boxing team, from his favorite boxers, to his desire to reverse recent history to importing his own fighters to serve as sparring partners. Roach is serving as a consultant to the team and is also involved in a trainer assistance program in which he has made his Wild Card gym in L.A available for one-on-one tutorials with the Olympians, all in preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London. Roach has spent the better part of a month in Colorado Springs, home of the Olympic training facility, working with the Olympic boxers, he said.
?We have some good guys up there,? Roach said in Manhattan during a presser for the Nov. 12 fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. ?We?re doing the best we can with the kids. They?re coming along good. They?re sparring with most of my fighters. What we wanted to do was give the kids a challenge. Instead of sparring the fighters who they?ve beaten in the Olympic trials and so forth and just dominating those guys, we felt like we had to bring in better competition to make them excel. We definitely did that and they?re holding their own with the pros. And it?s going quite well.?
He?s brought in a number of his own fighters, such as the undefeated middleweight Peter ?Kid Chocolate? Quillin, as well as the undefeated cruiserweight, Lateef Kayode to work with the boxers.
Roach intends to trek back to Colorado Springs on Friday to continue working with the team in preparation for the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan from Sept. 22-Oct. 10, the final hurdle in the Olympic qualifying process. And then, he?s off to the Philippines to help Pacquiao prepare for his own fight with Marquez.
