If the name Freddie Roach triggers something deep in the sports memory, you probably were an early ESPN junkie.
Crammed between such sports as Australian Rules Football and professional wrestling, ESPN Top Rank Boxing helped elevate the network — the promotional company for which the show was named — and a dynamic junior featherweight who couldn’t punch yet left crowds and viewers clamoring for more.
Roach, 47, was a regular on ESPN in the early 1980s, a tiny, red-haired dynamo who was trained by the legendary Eddie Futch and created some of the most memorable televised action fights of his era.
