BoxRec

Freddie Roach was fuming today when Boxing Scene caught up with him at his gym in Los Angeles. Freddie has just returned from Germany, where he worked Wladimir Klitschko's corner in his victory over Nicholson. He was asked him about his problems with Murad Muhammad.

The Manila Standard is reporting you have threatened to quit Pacman over money not paid you. Is that accurate Freddie?

"Yeh, if I don't get my full amount of money I was supposed to be getting there, my full percentage.
"According to the paperwork Manny was supposed to get $700,000, and he only got 350,000."

I asked him if he knew what made the difference, or if he had gotten a breakdown on the purse.

"No, the promoter Murad Muhammad took the rest. I have no idea what his reason for that was."

Freddie feels something is also amiss in the handling of negotiations for the upcoming bout for Pacquiao and was very outspoken on the issue.

"They have offered Manny a million dollars to fight Juan Manuel Marquez and I have a deal for 1.5 million against whoever the opponent might be."

Asked if Freddie's deal may involved Johnny Tapia, Roach replied:

"He is one of the names mentioned. They mentioned Oscar Larios as well. I mean its pretty obvious to me that there's way more than a million dollars in a fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, so why fight the toughest guy out there for a million, for that cheap money! Well, somebody's hiding where the real money is going, and you know we're trying to get accounting now of everything from Murad, I've got a couple of lawyers working on getting the breakdown of where the money did go. Manny does have a contract with Murad Muhammad, I think he is a breach of contract for not giving full disclosure."

Roach didn't wish to continue on about Manny at this time, but we did spend several minutes discussing James Toney and McCline. Asked how everything is shaping up for the fight, Roach replied:

"Good. We start sparring today for the fight. We got a couple of big guys coming in, one guy from North Carolina, and Ray Austin, who is going to give James some good work. James is motivated for the fight, he's anxious and he has been doing a lot of conditioning. He hasn't been sparring because I've been away working with Klitschko in Germany. But James has been doing his conditioning and roadwork. His weight's not too bad, he's staying within striking distance, so I'm happy with him."

Roach, who says he is having a lot of fun at this stage of his career, touched on the heavyweight division and Toney's prospects in it.

"Toney has a good chance to go through the heavyweight division. The Klitschkos are making a little bit of noise, but James is very comfortable in the heavyweight division. He is a very talented guy, and his speed is going to give a lot of these guys trouble, and I think the McCline fight is going to tell us how he is going to do with the bigger guys. McCline's a big guy."

I asked if heart was going to make a big difference in the fight with Jameel.

"That will be the difference in this fight. If you don't have a heart, James will expose that. In the McCline-Boswell fight, Boswell walked into a shot. James won't do that."

We touched briefly on the rest of Freddie's fighters and he commented this on Bernard Dunne.

"Ben Dunne is in Ireland right now and will be back in a week and we will get him going again. His last fight was a good experience for him, he walked into one, you know it's going to happen sooner or later. But Ben got off the deck and he recovered well. The thing is these guys get a little cocky at times, it brings them back to reality."

Keith Terceira

I personally consider Roach to be the best out there.

It would be a disaster for Manny to lose him.

I personally think that McKirt and Floyd Mayweather Snr are at least as good as Roach - although considering Tyson only trained for 4 weeks and made prime fighting weight demonstrates that Roach is a great motivator.

McGirt has produced no-one.

Who has Floyd Snr produced other than his son?

Roach is the best.

Personally, I think the improvement in Gatti must be respect. Okay, perhaps Ward isn't the best of opponents but I didn't even dream that Gatti could do such a job on him (I didn't think he had that in him).

The change is remenscent of Rocky in Rocky III (a fictional change).

I also think DLH greatest performance was against Vargas under the tutorlidge of Mayweather Snr - okay, DLH was/is an established great and may have adapted without Mayweather Snr. However, couldn't the same be said of many of Roach's fighters?

Vargas was too hyped.

Southpaw Stylist wrote:Vargas was too hyped.

Vargas had his career beaten out of him, by tito in 12 painfully tough rounds.

That's sort of what I meant.

The thing about DLH is that I don't believe he's ever CLEARLY beat a pound for pound fighter.

Roach seems like a decent man. I feel a bit sorry for him over the Manny fiasco.

Southpaw Stylist wrote:That's sort of what I meant.

The thing about DLH is that I don't believe he's ever CLEARLY beat a pound for pound fighter.

Pehaps not, but he's beaten enough boderline P4P fighters to warrant exclusion in such a list. Guys like Chavez, Reulas, Hernandez, Vargas.

It could be seen the other way round aswell as one once was he beaten clearly (and that was fairly close). How many clear wins has tito had against P4P opposition.

No, I'm not some bias DLH fan, I actually think he lost to Trinidad, Whittikar, Quartey and Moseley (the first time) - but its certainly an argument either way for 3 of these fights. I don't think you can really argue about Moseley II - DLH won.

Southpaw Stylist wrote:McGirt has produced no-one.

Who has Floyd Snr produced other than his son?

Roach is the best.

Is "producing" fighters the only measure?

McGirt (and Steward for example) specialise in improving fighters - and that IMO is AS difficult if not MORE difficult than Producing fighters.

IMO you measure a teachers ability (and Trainers aren't so far from teachers) on improvement not results.

logically McGirt deserves recognition for returning Gatti and others to a more prime form.

I rate McGirt as highly as any of them because he has a proven ability to restore a fighter's belief and winning mentality - and that (IMO) takes more that three sets of reps and 1 hours sparring!!

To get a fighter like Gatti to fight to a plan is a genuine achievement IMO.

Stu

Not trying to go over old ground but I was at ODLH v Sugar Shane II and scored it for Moseley. I was surrounded by DLH fans, most of them scored it for Shane, as did two thirds of the ringside reporters. When I asked Glenn McCrory (spelling?) at the airport how he scored it, I was amazed he had it so wide for Oscar.

It was a close fight, a lot depends on whether you like your shots to do some damage or treat all shots that hit the scoring zone as equal.

That fight was definately a matter of personal opinion although i would have given it to Oscarr but not by a wide margin.

HH