Freddie Roach talks Mayweather-Mosley, drug testing, and more with Jim Rome

In a recent edition of Jim Rome is Burning, world renown trainer Freddie Roach dropped by to discuss a myriad of topics ranging from his own career as a fighter, his fighter Manny Pacquiao’s bout with Joshua Clottey, the upcoming Floyd Mayweather-Shane Mosley bout and more.

Roach also went in depth about the recent Olympic style drug testing fiasco that prevented a Pacquiao-Mayweather bout from ever becoming a reality. Mayweather insisted that both fighters should have put themselves through a strenuous testing process which including blood testing but the two men were unable to come to terms. During the interview Roach went in depth about Pacquiao’s mental state following giving blood and how it affects him.

Roach is going to be in Las Vegas the weekend of April 10th to oversee the 4th professional fight of his latest prospect, Lightweight Jose Benavidez and the following month he has a huge assignment as his charge Amir Khan will be defending his WBA belt against Paulie Malignaggi in New York. As far as Roach’s future with Pacquiao it is still uncertain as to what will happen as the WBO Welterweight champion has been talking retirement amidst an upcoming political push.

In his own words this is what Roach had to say about everything, from his relationship with Pacquiao, thoughts on Mayweather and Mosley, and more…

Reflecting on his time in Dallas during Pacquiao’s victory over Joshua Clottey… “Great audience, great venue. Cowboys Stadium was the part of the trip probably. The thing was that I told Jerry Jones he had a lot of guts for building that place. I asked him ‘how are you going to pay for it?’. Pacquiao fought a good fight and he did what he was supposed to do. He won every round. I like Joshua Clottey, he’s a real nice guy and a real gentleman, but you have the world title in front of you maybe once in a lifetime and you have to die trying to win that. He was just content with going to distance. I think once he realized how fast Pacquiao was in the first round he just didn’t want to get knocked out and just wanted to go the distance.”

Pacquiao playing around with the two-handed punch… “I did have a concern because he does like to play a little bit and he did play when he did the double punch. He’s always told me that he wanted to do that at least once in the fight and I told him ‘Don’t do it!’. He laughed and he had a big smile on his face and I said ‘The sonofagum did it’. He wanted to get that out of his system I hope.”

His relationship with Manny Pacquiao… “The thing is that I don’t hang out with him and don’t go out to socialize with him too much. I want to keep that separation between trainer and fighter. I learned once in my life when I got to close to my fighter and we became friends and I told him to do something and he laughed and not take me seriously. [That was] my first champion Virgil Hill. I told him ‘I mean it, get to work’. But we became too close and it affected our working relationship.”

Putting his foot down… “The thing is that I do have to put my foot down sometimes. In the last camp he came to the gym and everyone was tired and sleep and I asked them what was wrong. He said that they were singing karaoke until 2 AM. I got the bunch together and I told them all off and I told them we were here for a fight and we were here for training camp. I said curfew is at 9 o’clock and I said to head security ‘What were you doing?’ and he said ‘I was signing’. I just said ‘Oh my god’. [Pacquiao] was very quiet for two days. He iced me for two days. It worked itself out. I heard that he was more interested in finding who ratted him out.”

Does Roach believe Mayweather vs. Pacquiao will ever happen? “I believe so. The thing is, Mayweather is a good fighter and I just believe he came up with these excuses because he wasn’t ready for Pacquiao yet. He only had one fight in two years and I think he needed more time. He’s got another fight coming up of course and after that all of the rust will be gone if he beats Mosley. He’s in a tough fight though. The thing is Shane has a little bit of trouble for boxers and I think it’s a good fight for Mayweather. I think he will win on points. Then he will be sharp and ready for a guy like Pacquiao.”

His thoughts on drug testing… “The thing is that we have never flunked a test before. We have tested before and after every fight. If we were on steroids we wouldn’t pass. It’s not like there isn’t testing and it’s not like they just test you some times. If you are in a title fight they test you every time and the commission has been doing that for a long time. The Olympic style drug testing they couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t do it the day before the fight. That’s an issue because Manny Pacquiao doesn’t like giving blood. I told him that that they can do urine, saliva, hair test, and any test in the world that would show exactly the same thing as blood. You see when he gets cut he doesn’t handle it well. He doesn’t like blood. I would but the thing is that everyone knows that he blames when he lost to Morales the first time because he had to give blood the day before the fight. I lose him for about three days. He’s not as strong. I’m not sure about that. He just feels that it’s in his head that it affects him for like three days and then he starts feeling better after that.”

His thoughts on Mayweather’s mission to clean up the sport… “I think that Mayweather is going to let the commission do their job just as they always do. He said that he wants to clean the sport up but I don’t think steroids are that used in boxing to be honest. It’s part of our life and the society that we live in today. Again, let the commission do their job and we aren’t going to let Mayweather run the show, that’s for sure. That’s giving the first two rounds away. Why would I do that? The next thing you know he’ll be saying we are fighting with 16 ounce gloves or in two minute rounds. We’re going to go with what the commission says and I’m sure there is going to be a tradeoff between Manny dropping the lawsuit and him dropping the drug test.”

His own career and knowing when to call it a day… “Eddie Futch, my coach, told me to retire five fights before I did. I fought five more times and I lost four of the five so he’s probably right. I might not have Parkinson’s disease if I did. I was just really frustrated. I put my whole life into it and I wanted to be a world champion. I cried that day when he told me it was over and it was just hard to realize that. It’s hard to swallow. It’s something I chose and something I did but I am happy.”

Author: Chris Robinson

Source: examiner.com