NEW YORK ? ?Can I work out,? he asked.
Freddie Roach was stunned. Muhammad Ali had popped in unannounced ?about 12 to 15 years ago? to his unassuming gym tucked away in a Hollywood strip mall. This was before Manny Pacquiao?s rise to stardom made the Wild Card Boxing Club a destination for top fighters around the globe and Roach a household name as a boxing trainer.
When Ali proceeded to the biggest bag in the stuffy gym, the tremors brought on by Parkinson?s disease disappeared. The combinations were very fluid, Roach noted, and then Ali proceeded to do a few magic tricks. He even showed off a photo of himself pretending to hit policemen with billy clubs.
Roach, too, has been afflicted by the nervous system disorder that silenced ?The Greatest.? Ali, of course, died last Friday from septic shock related to respiratory issues that were exacerbated by Parkinson?s.
?We talked about medications and so forth and about how hard they are to take,? Roach told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday at Madison Square Garden, where his fighter, Zou Shiming, will compete Saturday. ?Pure dopamine is a very hard mediation to take. It makes you throw up and makes you sick. It?s hard to take and sometimes he wouldn?t take his medication.
?I told him ?I know, I have days like that, too.? Sometimes it was better not to take medication; you would feel better. You were going to get sick anyway until you got used to it.
?Dealing with Parkinson?s is tough enough, but as you age it gets harder and harder of course.?
Roach, 56, was diagnosed with the disease at age 29. Ali, who died at 74, at age 42.
Dr. Margaret Goodman, a practicing neurologist in Las Vegas and a longtime ringside physician who has worked with hundreds of Parkinson?s patients, isn?t so sure Ali?s disease was the result of head trauma, but she notes it?s impossible to know without a posthumous brain examination. There are no plans for that.
?I?ve examined thousands of fighters,? she said. ?How come we don?t see (Parkinson?s) more often? We tend to see more cognitive disorders. I think what is significant about (Ali?s) disease is that it was so profound and so progressive that we don?t see it very often in boxing to that degree.
?That makes me question whether it was all related to boxing or accelerated by boxing. Perhaps he had a predisposition to it and it was accelerated by boxing. And now that we know so much about CTE, it?s the subconcussive blows that can be additive.?
Roach, naturally, was affected by the news of Ali?s passing, but is also wishful for his own future. He takes two medications each four times a day. Sinemet, a dopamine promoter, and artane, an antispasmodic drug that treats tremors, stiffness, spasms, and poor muscle control.
Together, the medications make him feel pretty good, and Roach says he?s symptom-free besides the tremors. The worst part of his day is putting his socks on, or bending over to tie his shoes due to back pain (he stopped taking painkillers years ago).
?I know that he had more difficulty as he got older,? Roach said of Ali. ?The day he was in the gym he was having a lot of fun, but at the end it seemed like he was suffering a lot more. Do I have to look forward to this maybe? The new medications, they?re getting better and better, and they?re learning a lot more about the disease. I do think they?ll have a cure in my lifetime.?
Roach isn?t just hoping for a cure. He has worked alongside Ali and actor Michael J. Fox (who also has the disease) to raise funds and awareness through the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
The Hall of Fame trainer also is confident all the work he does with his fighters and physical fitness have helped stave off progression of Parkinson?s.
?Hand-eye coordination is the best in the world for Parkinson?s,? he said. ?Rigidity is the biggest thing and staying loose on the mitts, catching different fighters, working all day, it keeps me alive, I think. I work 12 hours a day in the gym and I love being in the gym.?
When he built the gym, someone asked Roach why? The former fighter responded: ?You never know when the next Muhammad Ali is going to walk through your doors. And then Muhammad Ali walked through my doors. And then Manny Pacquiao walked through my doors. It changed my life.?
