The Roach ring legacy goes back to his father’s reign as New England featherweight champ back in the late ’40s. Son duplicated father’s achievement when he handed Joe (Bugman) Phillips a boxing lesson on the Marvin Hagler-Fulgencio Obelmejias title bout card last Janaury at the Boston Garden. The father didn’t have to lead his boys to the sport. He ran a Parks Department gym in South Boston which featured boxing and they came willingly.
“We all started together,” Freddie recalls. “All five boys in the family went to the gym there. Besides myself, Allen, Dominic (Pepper), Joey and Paul all boxed. My first fight was at 50 pounds. I was 10, it was in a Parks Department show and I lost. But I liked it and kept going. I won four New England Junior Olympic titles, the three NEAAU and one Lowell Golden Gloves title. We didn’t have to fight, but, if we wanted to, my dad would help us out. But he didn’t push. My main thing all along was going pro.”
After recording a 141-9 amateur record, Roach did turn pro, but fight dates kept getting canceled. “I was pro for a year,” Roach says, “and shows kept getting put off or canceled. The scene has picked up since Hagler became champ but it was slow there. I had been to Vegas with my Dad when my brother Pepper and I fought in the national tournaments. We packed up.”
“I miss my family but there was just no action. And we figured, for my weight class, there would be better fights out there. If nothing happened in Vegas, we were gonna go to California.” The pair strolled into Johnny Tocco’s Ringside Gym and ran into a junior middleweight from Massachusetts who had also headed west looking for more an opportunity. Steve Delgado was being managed and trained by Futch. Before the partnership was formed, Futch carefully eyed more than Roach’s ring moves.
“They decided to tie up with me,” Futch recalls, “and the father left Freddie with me. But I made sure Freddie was a dedicated kid, a sincere kid. Boxing is such a demanding sport there is nothing a kid can do–no matter how ability he has–unless he lives properly. I’ve seen too many fighters waste it, throw their talent down the drain. But this kid liked to work.”
“Refined is a good word for what I did to him. I saw his natural bent and added to it. He had a great left hook, a pretty good right and a quick jab. But he learned to fight on the inside, too. He learned very rapidly and improved from fight to fight. We built a great rapport. He shows at the gym on time and he hangs on my every word.”
Family interference is a sad part of ring history but Futch said the Roaches have had a well-advised, gloves off policy. “I’ve had that happen to me,” Futch admits. “And it’s a real close-knit family. I hope for the kid’s sake it doesn’t happen. The fighter is always the one who suffers the most.”
While he learned his lessons in the gym, Roach took his tests in the ring. Futch fed him a steady diet of Mexican fighters, all aggressive and all non-stop punchers. Roach’s string of victories over the Mexican fighters led Delgado to nickname him “La Cucaracha.” Roach even learned from his only loss, a decision at the hands of Beto Nunez in Phoenix on Sept. 13, 1979.
“It was a miserable decision, a miscarriage of justice,” claims Futch. “You don’t hear me complain about decisions often. But this guy was a clutch artist, a jab and grab type. Freddie did all the fighting that was done. And the other guy was a local gut. It was one of the worst decisions I’ve seen.”
The education continued and Roach quickly regained his winning ways. He had seven fights in 1980, including the decision over Resendez, and won them all. Futch feels the fighter’s opponents contributed as much to his advancement as the gym sessions.
“Freddie’s background was a good one,” Futch said. “He was well groomed. But fighting all those Mexicans wasn’t easy. When you beat a string of them, you have learned your trade. You know you’re in a fight against them. It was good for Freddie. It brought him a long way in a short time. And he never took a beating. He was the boss in every fight.”
Part 3: Roach’s ring success catches the eye of Eastern promoters, including Top Rank’s Bob Arum and Freddie realizes a dream when he spars with legendary Alexis Arguello.
