Dedham’s Freddie Roach, who captured his second Trainer of the Year award last week, appears to have more demands on his time than he can handle. Roach’s agreement to train Oscar De La Hoya (for a reported $1 million) for his May 5 title defense against Floyd Mayweather Jr. has had a ripple effect throughout the boxing world.
De La Hoya wants to open his training camp in Puerto Rico on March 2. Roach will accompany him there, and hopes to bring along another charge, 2006 Fighter of the Year Manny Pacquiao, to train alongside the Golden Boy.
It thus remains dubious that Roach will be stateside long enough to work the corner of his featherweight champion Israel Vasquez against Rafael Marquez in Carson, Calif., on March 3, and another casualty would appear to be Pawtucket super middleweight Peter Manfredo Jr., who challenges Joe Calzaghe in Wales April 7.
Roach informed Team Manfredo that he would be unable to travel to Wales in April and offered to step aside, but the decision was made to keep Manfredo working at Freddie’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood under the tutelage of Roach assistant Justin Fortune. Peter Manfredo Sr., the boxer’s father, will work the corner in Wales, where he will be joined by Sugar Ray Leonard, whose association with Manfredo stems from his “Contender” days. (Hey, why not just let Sylvester Stallone train Manfredo?)
In the meantime, the added demands upon the time of the elder Manfredo have led Providence cruiserweight Matt Godfrey to hire another trainer – Bernard Hopkins cornerman Nazim Richardson – to get him ready for his April 6 date against Felix Cora. Roach, in the meantime, will join De La Hoya and Mayweather on a 10-day media tour that hits New York Thursday. (No Boston stop is scheduled.)
The envelope please . . .
Among other winners in the 2006 Boxing Writers Association of America awards, prominent recipients include HBO’s Larry Merchant (James J. Walker Award for Long and Meritorious Service), Showtime’s Steve Albert (Sam Taub Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism), Top Rank publicists Lee Samuels and Ricardo Jimenez (who will share the Marvin Kohn Good Guy Award) and Muhammad Ali (Pat Putnam Award for Perseverance). The voters declined to name a 2006 recipient for the Al Buck Award for manager of the year.
Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, a thrilling bout most voters would never seen but for YouTube – between Somsak Sitchchatchawal and Mahyar Monshipour in Thailand – was named Fight of the Year.
The organization’s most prestigious honor – The Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism – will be determined later by a vote of living previous recipients. The awards will be presented at the BWAA’s annual dinner in New York on June 8 – the night before Miguel Cotto-Zab Judah at Madison Square Garden. . . .
Bernard Hopkins-Winky Wright appears to be a done deal for July 21. No site yet, but you have to like Las Vegas’ chances.
World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Shannon Briggs, diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia, has withdrawn from his scheduled March 10 defense against Russian Sultan Ibragimov at the Madsion Square Garden Theatre. Briggs, having revived his career with a last-round knockout of Sergei Lyakhovich last November, had been in line for the biggest score of his 15-year career – a $1.3 million purse, plus another half-million in endorsement revenues. (“I was going to look like a NASCAR driver with my trunks,” said a rueful Briggs.) Promoters are hoping to save the date, throwing the Sultan up against either Lyakhovich or Calvin Brock for one of those “interim” titles, with Briggs fighting the winner later in the summer. . . .
