TalkingBoxing Interviews
Talking Boxing with Freddie Roach
THU January 19, ROGER GORDILLO - As they prepare for their upcoming match against Erik Morales Freddie was kind enough to speak to TalkingBoxing as the future Hall of Fame trainer finished a workout out session with Manny Pacquiao in preparation for his Jan. 21 bout in Las Vegas.
TalkingBoxing: So what are your thoughts on Morales wearing Reyes gloves, are you guys worried that he might be able to inflict more damage this time around against Manny using them?
Freddie Roach: Yeah, well if my opponents wearing Reyes gloves I’d wear them too because I wouldn’t want to give my opponent that much of an advantage and that’s the kind of glove Manny likes. But I think he wears the Winning gloves mostly because of his hands because they give him more padding. I think he’s lying I think he’s goona wear Winning in the fight, he might just be threatening. It’s funny because we train Manny with the Winning gloves now because they protect his hands so well. So we train with the Winning gloves but we’ve trained with Reyes gloves and in this fight we’re definitely wearing Reyes. It doesn’t matter but if I were him I would definitely wear Reyes gloves also.
TalkingBoxing: I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone make that statement that’s some very good insight, it would seem that you would be giving up a big advantage that’s a very good point.
Freddie Roach: I think so and the thing is he’s a pretty good puncher too and he landed some pretty good shots in the fight and maybe with the gloves he might be able to hit Manny a little bit more.
TalkingBoxing: Barrera recently stated that a bout between him in Chavez is not yet signed because of the weight and he has stated that would be glad to fight Manny on his march 25th date or a month or so later, what do you think about that and can Manny be ready that quickly?
Freddie Roach: It’s already off I just spoke to Bob Arum and he said so don’t even worry about it. It depends how we come out of this fight of course, it looks like it’s going to be a twelve round war so it’s probably going to be too soon. Barrera I think deserves a rematch and he’s a nice guy and we’re definitely willing to fight him we just got to workout the numbers and so forth and it’s a fight we definitely look forward to if we win this fight of course. But we’ll worry about that after Morales.
TalkingBoxing: Have you had any experience working against Erik’s new trainer and is there anything you can tell us about him?
Freddie Roach: I don’t even know who he is I hear he’s a good trainer, I hear good things about him but I personally don’t know him.
TalkingBoxing: In Kingsley’s loss to Abraham was it strictly a weight problem that lost him the fight and why did he have problems making weight?
Freddie Roach: There was no weight problem I don’t know where that came from there was no weight problem. We had no problem making weight we made weight the same as always. Kingsley makes weight easy we just lost the fight because the guy was the better puncher and he caught us on the ropes and Kingsley was actually having his best round. We started a little slow we were coming back in the fight in the fifth round he was having a good round and in the sixth round they stopped it and he was actually having his best round but he got caught against the ropes with left hand right and the referee stopped it .
TalkingBoxing: Why does James beat Rahman and is there any worry that he can get knocked out in that fight?
Freddie Roach: Rahman is the strongest Heavyweight James has ever fought that’s for sure. We have to respect his power but he has a good right hand and people don’t have success hitting James Toney with right hands especially because he has a great defense against that. I think Rahman is going to be a tough guy but we got a hard camp coming up and we start training the day after Manny’s fight. James tells me he’s going to come in at 218 and when he says something he means it and that’s a great weight for James and I think if he comes in at that weight he’ll be in the best shape. He was 217 when he fought Holyfield and it’s a great weight for James and I think he knows he needs to be there to be effective and be more effective than he’s been. He’s a talented guy and I am definitely very confident that James will win that fight but we need to respect his power and be in the best shape we can be in.
TalkingBoxing: He’s new on the boxing scene and some people aren’t so familiar with him so what can you tell the readers about Ray Bautista as a fighter?
Freddie Roach: He’s a young guy but I think they’re expecting too much out of him right now he’s an 18 year old kid and he just fought a tough fight. He beat a pretty good guy, now this guy had 28 wins with 26 knockouts and he had Bautista down and hurt badly and I was really worried that this guy would finish him because he had so many knockouts. But Bautista showed a lot of heart and his conditioning helped him out a lot he’s in great shape so he came back well and beat a guy he should’ve beat. I guess the guy had nine losses but had a lot of knockouts and it was a great test for Bautista and a great learning experience but he’s not ready for a title fight he’s at least a year away.
TalkingBoxing: So what’s your take on the Zab Judah / Carlos Baldomir fight?
Freddie Roach: Wow, he blew it big money, Mayweather. But you know what the way he was acting and what he did before the fight he made a lot of people happy. The other guy, not many people gave him a shot but he was determined he trained hard for the fight and I think he totally had the edge in the fight.
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