Sporting News caught up with legendary boxing coach Freddie Roach in Glasgow, Scotland, as he makes final preparations for Ivan Baranchyk’s semifinal bout against Josh Taylor in the World Boxing Super Series on Saturday, which will be streamed live on DAZN.
SPORTING NEWS: You took over the training for Ivan Baranchyk not that long ago. How has it been preparing for this semifinal against Josh Taylor?
FREDDIE ROACH: I think the biggest issue is that he is the hometown fighter, and everyone should know the hometown fighter. We’re coming here from Russia by way of Los Angeles, we trained for eight weeks in LA for this one and had a very good training camp. It was our first one together, which made it a little difficult as our languages are different. I wonder if he understands what I’m saying when we are going over the game plan and things like that. We do have a good game plan to beat this guy [Taylor] and [after watching] all the tape I've seen of him, I think I have all his bad habits down and other things we can take advantage of. Taylor’s footwork is OK, he’s in and out quickly, sometimes he stays in the pocket a little too long. I feel I have the better puncher of the two in this one for sure.
SN: Have you two jelled as quickly as you would like, and how did this pairing come about?
FR: One thing I've learned with Ivan is that the closer we get to the fight, the better and the meaner he gets. He really puts the game face on. He’ll come down every morning with a smile on his face and I do like that as I know he’s happy and everything is going well. But when it's time to go to work there’s no fooling around so it’s working out very well. He’s got the game plan down; he knows what I want him to do and I do feel that he will follow my instructions. He called me a couple of times and I’ve seen him a couple of times when he was fighting in the Midwest. He’s very impressive as he always comes to fight, and I expect nothing different in that fight against Taylor. We are in a different country but the ring is the same size and I don’t give a s— how many people are shouting for the other guy, by the end of the fight they’ll be yelling for my guy because I feel we are going to steal the show.
Josh Taylor vs. Ivan Baranchyk: fight date, price, how to watch, live-stream WBSS semifinal
SN: Let’s go back to the beginning of what has been an amazing coaching career for you. Did you want to become a trainer after you finished boxing or was it just something you fell into?
FR: I hated the sport when I retired. I mean, I put my whole life into something and I failed. I didn’t get anything out of it. My biggest payday was $7,500 for fighting Hector Camacho for the world title, it didn’t work out that well. I wanted to be a world champion and be rich and famous, but it took something else to be rich and famous, to be a trainer. So, after I retired, I probably drank for about a year, which was the first time doing that in my life. I was a telemarketer as a phone salesman and I probably averaged about $300 a week, enough to pay the rent. At one point I said, "I better get back to work," so I went down the gym and just started to help Eddie Futch. Every day I would show up and help Eddie. I completely quit drinking as I was asking the fighters not to drink, so I probably shouldn’t drink, either. I became Eddie’s No. 1 assistant. I was with Eddie for about five years at that point and then a couple of fighters, Virgil Hill and Marlon Starling, wanted to go on their own with me. I talked to Eddie about it and he wasn’t too happy about that, but I didn’t want to abandon these fighters that I had been with for five years, so I took them on. Virgil was my first world champion and Marlon was my second, in that order, I think, but they’ll argue about who was the first.
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SN: You’ve worked with over 50 world champions; would you say you’ve got the boxing game all worked out?
FR: Some fighters were world champions before they met me, some became world champions with me and some after. I’ve had the opportunity to work with at least 50 great fighters. Everyone is different; you can’t train two fighters the same. It’s just impossible to do that as it’s not going to work. One guy will click with this, one will click with that. You have to take each one as individuals as no two fighters are alike and they all have different characters, different issues, different religions, different killer instincts. I will say that having a killer instinct in this game is very important because you’re out to hurt our opponent. My best fighter, Manny Pacquiao, when he got into religion and so forth, he said, "I don’t have to hurt my opponents, I just have to beat them," and I said, "No! You better just knock them out, Manny!" We debate over that somewhat but we still get along very well and respect each other immensely. I respect what he does and he respects what I do and we work very well in the gym together. There’s no better workout than watching me and him do mitts. I mean, the whole gym will stop working out to watch because he is explosive.
SN: Would you say Pacquiao is the best professional you’ve worked with?
FR: Starting out, no, but where he is now? Yes. He’s developed into a very good fighter. I will say this, he has good footwork. If you want to watch footwork, then watch Manny. But we did come up with a little bit of a problem once where he would attack after the third feint. He would go on the same number and the other guy was smart enough to count and Manny walked straight into a shot. It was a mistake that we shouldn’t have made but we let it go and he got knocked out (against Juan Manuel Marquez). Working with a guy like Pacquiao, he understands that suffering a knockout isn’t the end of his career. Being knocked out happens to everybody in this game — with the right punch, anyone can be knocked out. I used to think it was impossible to knock me down. Like, Mike Tyson couldn’t knock me down because I had such a good chin. Then, all of a sudden, I touched the floor one day and I was wondering, "How the f— did I get here?" It’s just the way it goes. Boxing is a rough sport.
SN: Manny Pacquiao takes on Keith Thurman on July 20; how do you see that fight going?
FR: Thurman is a big, strong guy but his last two fights he hasn’t looked as good as he once was. But I won’t underestimate him and I’ll expect him [to] come with his best because he’s fighting one of the best. I've been watching all his best fights for weaknesses. We do have a tough fight in front of us. It's a winnable fight but Pacquiao’s speed should be too much for him, All Manny has to do is pretty much let his hands go a little bit more. I was very happy with him in his last fight, It was the most offensive I've seen him in a long, long time. It's been a while since he’s fought like that, like back in the Ricky Hatton days.