LAS VEGAS ? For the prize fighter, there are things you never forget, even if it?s been 30 years since you last laced on gloves.
You never forget the smell of the gym or the sound of the bell or the roar of the crowd. You never forget that churning feeling in your stomach as the moment approaches to leave the safe haven of your locker room and take the longest walk in sports: the halting steps toward a roped-off arena with no exit without victory or defeat.
And then there?s the money.
If you?re a prize fighter, money is the prize you?re fighting over. Belts have meaning and so does history and pride, but the reason they call it prize fighting is the fighters leave with a check.
It has now been nearly 30 years since Freddie Roach last received one for fighting another man, but he still remembers vividly not only the biggest payday of his career, but where every penny went. Boxing is a sport of rhythm and repetition. Where that check landed is one of its oft-repeated drum beats.
?The IRS came and took it right in the locker room after the fight,? Manny Pacquiao?s longtime trainer recalled. ?It was for $13,000. The (Hector) Camacho fight.?
Roach was already at the beginning of the end that night in Sacramento, when he lost all but one round to the then-undefeated Camacho. He was locked in a downward spiral, trapped in the midst of what would become a streak of losing four of his final five fights. But who could see that coming when the end arrives at 26?
Not Roach. Not until he took his final walk at the Lowell Auditorium on Oct. 24, 1986, losing a majority decision to an undefeated kid named David Rivello, a loss that made final for Roach the warning his longtime but long-departed trainer, Eddie Futch, had given him five fights earlier.
?Eddie told me it was time to retire, but I didn?t want to hear it,? Roach admitted. ?Like most fighters. He wouldn?t train me anymore so my father did. He was a good trainer but after that fight, I knew. If I was losing to a kid like that it was over.?
The end had come far sooner than the Dedham-born-and-raised Roach ever expected. Once he?d been one of the three Fighting Roach Brothers, joining Joey and Pepper on the same card on June 11, 1982 at the Boston Garden, the first of two times that happened. It was a dream come true for a kid who?d been one of New England?s finest amateurs and was then 26-1 as a professional. As with most things in boxing, it was a dream that didn?t last.
Roach was upset that night, knocked out in his next fight a month later in Las Vegas, and his career was never the same. He would box a record 21 times on ESPN but never for a world title, and when it was over, the IRS took his money and boxing left him with a crippling fight he faces every day. A fight with the neurological disease known as Parkinson?s.
But as much as boxing has taken from him, it has also given Roach everything. It has been decades since he found himself with the alias Joe Davis, a name he used while briefly and unsuccessfully working as a telemarketer before Futch brought him back as an unpaid assistant trainer.
It turned out to be his calling and soon he wasn?t unpaid anymore. He was so successful he branched out on his own with future Hall of Famer Virgil Hill and eventually ended up with his own gym in Los Angeles, a gym that has become a boxing icon. Interestingly, so has Roach.
The Wild Card Gym is now a destination spot for boxers searching for an ascetic guru. The man they seek is Roach, who at 55 has become boxing?s most honored trainer. Nearly 14 years ago, he was sitting in the gym as he does six days a week and in walked a skinny Filipino kid who weighed 122 pounds, a former world champion who had lost his title and his way.
Like many in search of new beginnings, Manny Pacquiao had come to America. He was searching for someone willing to train him. Roach said he?d take a look. He knew the big money was in heavyweights, not dethroned flyweight champions, but he liked what he saw, although he had no idea where it would lead.
Saturday night they will partner together for the 31st time in the highest grossing fight in boxing history. When Pacquiao enters the ring he?s all but assured of grossing $120 million to face undefeated welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., who reportedly could earn as much as $180 million for a fight that will break every record for gate receipts, pay-per-view sales, sponsorship income and foreign TV rights. The guy from Dedham is going to do all right as well, as he has been doing for years.
?When did a trainer ever make $3 million for one fight?? Roach said, while sitting in a quiet corner of a Vegas restaurant. ?I never saw this coming. I?m lucky to say I?m a millionaire because of Manny and because I?m pretty cheap. I?ll never be broke.
?I?ve got money in the bank and two people who invest it. I own five houses. I?m a partner in a catering business in San Francisco, but we don?t do the food. The money is in the tables and plates. All the dishes we own have never been clean at the same time. That?s how busy business is.?
It?s not as busy as Roach this week. He?s devised Pacquiao?s fight plan, trained him for two months to execute it and on the side been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to wear GEICO and Under Armour logos on his athletic equipment. A member of the Boxing Hall of Fame and seven times Trainer of the Year, life could not be much better … except when it?s an impossible burden.
That?s on the days when Parkinson?s and two bulging discs in his spine have him in so much pain it?s a fight just to roll out of bed at 5 a.m. and head to the Wild Card for one of his 12-hour days. For all his success as a trainer, which includes working with 27 world champions, Freddie Roach fights every day. He takes 15 or so pills daily to ward off the rigidity, uncontrollable shaking and difficulty walking that come with Parkinson?s, and lately has had several epidurals to ward off the incessant pain from those bulging discs. They may eventually be surgically repaired, but Roach has other fights to face first.
?I?d be out for about 30 days,? Roach said. ?I told my doctor, maybe after the (Miguel) Cotto (middleweight title) fight (next month). He said, ?You may not have until next month.? I?ll take my chances.?
That?s what fighters do. They take chances and Saturday night Roach is gambling on Pacquiao, who has won world titles in eight weight classes and is one of the most revered athletes in sports. Despite all their shared success, Roach insisted, ?It?s the biggest fight of my life. I?ve been in big fights myself, trained for some big ones. Nothing?s bigger than this one. Manny and I understand in boxing sometimes you lose. That?s the sport. If we do, we?ll keep fighting. But we have to win this fight.?
Roach actually will have to win two. One comes Saturday night. The other comes every day.
?I?ve been taking some different medications and haven?t shook for six months,? said Roach, whose head is permanently tilted rigidly to one side and who now walks with a difficult gait. ?I take pills four times a day.
?Funny thing is when I?m in the ring I don?t have any problems. I work the mitts. I move around. It?s my comfort zone. I?ve been in there my whole life. It?s a place where I always had to stay calm. I still am in there.?
But outside the life of the boxing ascetic can be lonely at times. Roach lives mostly alone, although his mother is close by and he has a wild circle of family and friends. His brother is in the gym with him and friends move in and out, both from back home and throughout Hollywood. Actor Mark Wahlberg, who encompasses both worlds, is among them.
Yet Roach admits at times the physical difficulties born from a life in boxing anger and frustrate him. It is then that he remembers what he is.
?I get angry sometimes,? he admitted. ?There are tough days. Sometimes it?s hard to get up. I can barely make it to the kitchen. I don?t get depressed but sometimes I get mad at the world. I think ?Why me?? but I?ve done so well in boxing I can?t complain. There?s two sides to everything in life.
?I train the best fighters in the world. I don?t owe anyone anything. Sometimes in camp my back was so sore I could barely walk in the morning. Then I start on the mitts with Manny and all the pain goes away. It relieves my symptoms for a little while. Boxing?s always fun. Even when we?re working in the ring, Manny and I are smiling.?
Saturday night Freddie Roach will be in the place he loves best. In an arena with the world watching to see who the winner is. Frankly, whatever happens, he?s already won just by being there.
?People ask me why don?t I retire,? Roach said. ?What would I do? Watch TV all day? Without the gym, I?d have no social life. Boxing?s my life.?
Any life has its ups and downs, certainly nowhere more than in a boxing ring. Freddie Roach made his peace with that long ago. He?s where he wants to be every day but Sunday. That?s the day the Wild Card is closed.
Freddie Roach hates Sunday.
