NY Boxing Examiner | Michael Marley
Coach Freddie Roach missed Manny Pacquiao’s Thursday 31st birthday bash in General Santos.
The highly esteemed trainer of the Pinoy Idol thus broke a Pacman birthday attendance streak of three years, including Dec. 17, 2008, when he was honored to share his table with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
But Megamanny can’t get mad about Roach’s absence. The Boston Irishman was at BB King’s cozy nightclub in Times Square doing what he does best, riding another talented fighter on to victory, in this case the flashy Cuban supper bantamweight Gilberto Rigondeaux.
The 2000 and 2004 Cuban Olympic gold medalist nearly KO’d rugged Ghanaian Lante Addy (now 6-5-1) fighting out of Baltimore in the first round but had to settle for a wide, eight round decision in Lou DiBella’s year-end “Broadway Boxing” show. Rigondeaux, who is a work in progress, improved to 4-0 and did notch not a knockout for the first time as a professional.
Rignondeaux paid homage to Roach and Pacman after his bout.
“Freddie is the greatest trainer in the world and Manny is the greatest fighter in the world…so whatever my Professor says.”
As Muhammad Ali liked to say, Rigondeaux is not “as dumb as he looks.”
I walked the frosty streets of Times Square as Roach marched back to his hotel and saw a sign of his public recognition.
As we waited for a traffic light to change on one block, a Puerto Rican family of five or six people buzzed when they saw Manny’s mentor.
“Great fight,” one of the men in the group said, “great fight.”
The reference naturally was to Pacman’s Nov. 14 win over Boricua Bomber Miguel Cotto.
I quizzed Roach about several topics as follows:
WHERE THE MARCH 13 FLOYD MAYWEATHER-PACMAN LOLLAPALOOZA WILL TAKE PLACE: “No way Mayweather is going to Texas. It is a Vegas fight the way I see it. Texas has had some bad decisions but Nevada has also. I just don’t Mayweather will go to Texas. We really don’t care where it is. I like Texas because that’s where we beat Barrera.”
WHY IT’S THE TOUGHEST FIGHT MANNY AND FLOYD HAVE EVER HAD: “We will train a month in Bagiuo, then to my gym in Los Angeles, then to Las Vegas. I want to get Manny into camp as early as possible. They’ve got a Jan. 8 New York press conference so maybe we’re in camp right after that. Mayweather doesn’t come aggressive like the last three guys we fought so we’ve got to do different things. We’ve got to set some traps for Mayweather and we will.”
ON HIS DISLIKE FOR ROGER MAYWEATHER: “The guy is just a gashole. He badmouths my trainer, Mr. Futch, a guy who is dead and can’t defend himself. I don’t go for that. He’s mean, different than Floyd Mayweather Sr. who is just harmless.”
ON ANY CHANCE OF MAYWEATHER DODGING MANNY: “I can’t see that because where else can he get this kind of money? Nowhere but from fighting Manny. They’re splitting the PPV money 50-50 so that tells you something.”
ON MAYWEATHER GETTING INTO MANNY’S HEAD: “No way. Manny wouldn’t take him serious. We had one opponent who was talking big and I wanted to snap at him but Manny told me, ‘Freddie, be a gentleman, I will take care of it.’”
ON DIBELLA TALKING UP A PAULIE MALIGNAGGI-AMIR KHAN BOUT IN NEW YORK: “I think we’d take that fight. I was on an airplane so I didn’t see Paulie beat Juan Diaz the other night on HBO.”
ON HOW MANNY WINS OVER FLOYD: “Manny can win a decision over Mayweather. They don’t think so but I know so.”
I wished Roach a festive holiday and a Mayweather New Year and we parted ways.
Source: Examiner.com
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