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BELOW THE BELT
By Gerry Malixi
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 12 Nov 2010
Seeing Freddie Roach in the flesh and up close you wonder how he can even last 5 minutes doing the mitts with Manny Pacquiao. His disease is evident in speech and his movement. Roach was diaganosed over 6 years ago with Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that impairs motor skills, cognitive processes and other functions. There is an estimated 6.3 million people afflicted with the disease and around 1.5 million of them, Americans.
At the Pacquiao vs Margarito main event press conference yesterday at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Robert Garcia, Margarito's chief trainer started his statement with an apology to Freddie Roach for a youtube video that came out recently that showed Margarito mimicking Roach's mannerisms caused by his disease (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL4mPeN4txg). "We mean no disrespect to Freddie Roach and to the millions afflicted with Parkinson's disease. Margarito did not even know that Freddie had that disease".
Roach blasted Margarito's camp saying that "I don't give a **** about them! They're not my friends. They disrespected me. They've always been nice but they showed their true colors this time. I don't need friends like that". In retaliation, Roach said he had spies in Margarito's camp and that he knows that many years ago, Margarito beat up a sparring partner to test his infamous hand-wraps packed with Plaster of Paris. One reporter asked why he would use them during training, Freddie said, "Well you have to get used to them. You can't just go into a fight not knowing how it feels so he used them in training and beat up a couple of guys years ago".
Top Rank boss, Bob Arum, the master of hype is probably tickled pink. Up until yesterday, the 2 camps were friendly. With a little animosity between the chief trainers, Pay Per View numbers would surely shoot up. The official weigh-in is November 12, 2010 at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.
Top photo: Freddie Roach (L) during Wednesday's final presscon in Dallas. Photo by Reiver Rodriguez.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Gerry Malixi.
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