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FREDDIE ROACH?S AMAZING CAREER By Eddie Alinea PhilBoxing.com Thu, 02 Apr 2015  LOS ANGELES - They call him ?La Cucaracha? for reasons Freddie Roach only answers with a smile whenever someone asks him why. His students call him ?Master Roach.? Still others call him the ?Choir Boy.? But unknown to many, Fredrick Steven ?Freddie? Roach, now a famous boxing trainer and Hall of Famer, started his athletic career as a trickster ? a miler, where he attested he was good. ?I?m a good miler and had some good records where I was raised and raced,? he told this writer in an interview during a lull in Manny Pacquiao?s training in Baguio City sometime ago, adding that he also played football and baseball in school. One of seven children of former fighter Paul Roach, the 1947 New England featherweight champion, Freddie and four of his siblings would turn to boxing through at the behest of their father. ?I turned out to be the best fighter in the house,? he said rather proudly. And he has records to speak well. He fought 150 fights, 141 of which he won, in his amateur days and was good enough, indeed, to make it into the United States boxing team Olympic trials. Roach actually made it as alternate of the 1976 U.S. team to the Montreal Summer Games, one of the best Olympic team ever as it also included soon-to-be professional legends Sugar Ray Leonard and the Spinks brothers ? Leon and Michael. Roach was born March 5, 1960 in Dedham, Massachusetts where he also grew up. Now the chief cornerman of reigning pound-for-pound monarch Manny Pacquiao, Freddie is one of the best and most sought after trainers in the sport. But life for the respected pugilistic guru isn?t exactly a dance at the prom. It never has been. He had his first amateur fight at age six to help tide his family up and, at eight, had his first taste of actual competition on the way to becoming the national 55-kilogram amateur champion. Freddie turned pro in 1978 at the age of eighteen and went into semi-retirement 10 years later in compiling a record of 39-13 with 15 knockouts. Notable names on his resume include Hector Camacho, Greg Haugen and Bobby Chacon. He lost to all three. In retirement, he had to do menial jobs to survive. The only job he knew was boxing and soon found himself back in the gym, this time as an assistant to renowned trainer Eddie Futch who had grown his legend in the corners of fighters such as Joe Frazier, Larry Homes and Ken Norton. He proudly attributes his success as a trainer to Futch, who he described as a good teacher. ?I learned all the ropes in teaching to fight from my 10-year stint as his understudy.? adding though that he is fortunate enough to having good fighters, too, citing Pacquiao as his most prized ward. La Cucaracha eventually nailed up his own shingle and currently owns the Wildcard Boxing Club in Los Angeles where he trains Pacquiao and many others. The Filipino boxing icon is one of the 26 world champions who fought under his wings, including legendary Oscar De La Hoya, one of the Filipino icon?s victims, whom he retired and soon-to-be rival Floyd Mayweather Jr., James Toney, Mike Tyson, Michael Moorer, and Bernard Hopkins, among many others. He has also worked with mixed martial arts fighters as the boxing trainer to UFC stars Anderson Silva and Andrei Arlovski. He was named Trainer of the Year three times by the Boxing Writers of America and has been enshrined in the World Boxing Hall of Fame. While it is his boxing background that has led him to his current success and status which accompanies it, it is that same background which has caused him his greatest suffering. He has Parkinson?s disease, which was caused either fully, or in part, by his life in the ring. As a result, he has difficulty walking, slightly slurred speech and general physical awkwardness. Medication has helped but he also combats the disease with exercise and a proper diet. Not only is he a master of fight strategy and preparation, but his battle with Parkinson?s has also made him highly sensitive to the well being of the boxers in his charge. When he sees the signs of impending ring damage in his fighters, he tells them, advises them to seek medical attention and then stops training them. Life with Parkinson?s is a daily battle for Freddie. But he?s a fighter and always has been. It?s how he was raised. ?Some people look at me and feel sorry for me and I can?t understand it. I love my life,? says Roach. And judging by the roll he?s on, life apparently loves him as well. He of a French-Canadian descent, Roach has been voted Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013. Roach was trained by Tariq Nasiri at a young age along with his brothers Pepper and Joey. As a teenager, he was a force in the New England amateur and AAU ranks. Roach turned pro in 1978, fighting as a featherweight, super featherweight and lightweight and won his first 10 bouts. Roach trained under legendary trainer Eddie Futch and went 26?1 before appearing in a historic match at the Boston Garden on June 11, 1982. That card was the first of two occasions that the three Fighting Roach Brothers fought inside the same ring. Brothers Joey and Pepper won their undercard bouts but in the main event, Freddie lost a unanimous decision to Rafael Lopez. Freddie would bounce back and go on to fight twice for the world championship. Late in his career, Roach began showing early signs of Parkinson's disease. Futch asked Roach to retire but the boxer refused and continued to fight with his father as his trainer. He went on to lose five of his last six fights before retiring at age 26. His biggest payday was measly $7,500. Roach was inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012 for non-participant inductee) Trainer of World Champions in a ceremony held in Canastota, New York. Other accolades include the World Boxing Hall of Fame ?Expanded Category?, 2006 California Boxing Hall of Fame (non-Boxer), 2008 World Boxing Council ?Lifetime Achievement Award.? Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.  |
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