By Michael Marley
Prof. Freddie Roach still feels real affection for former student James "Lights Out" Toney.
He knows that Toney will get ticked off reading or hearing this but the trainer of Manny Pacquiao ("Im the best trainer in the world because I train the best fighter in the world," Roach said Wednesday) does not care.
He is repeating his call for Toney, who at age 42 was slurring his speech before he got clobbered in a recent UFC bout last Saturday in Roach's hometown of Boston, to hand up his gloves.
And, Roach said, he is himself a bad example for Toney to follow.
"I told James to quit after the second Sam Peter fight. He got hit big shots he never used to get hit with before and it was big heavyweights landing the shots," Roach said. "It's not just the slurring of his speech.
"James got pissed off at me, told me to go f**k myself but I still consider him my friend. Those shots have taken a toll and I know from experience.
"My trainer, Eddie (Futch) told me to quit at the right time but I didn't listen to him, I went my own stubborn way. Guess I should've listened to him as I lost four of my last five bouts. So I should have quit myself."
Roach said the freedom to fight can work against a finished fighter.
"I like it, I like living in a country where you get the chance to fight but any commission would have to give James a lot of tests now. If he passes those tests, if he fights, well then he's got that right."
As is well known, Roach suffers from Parkinsonism and sometimes shakes and trembles.
He takes daily medication to control the condition and it has never deterred him from putting in typical, 12 hour workdays with talents like Pacman, Amir Khan and others at his Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.
Let's hope Roach's friendly advice is carefully considered by Toney, a fighter who have long respected dating back to that summer night in Davenport, Iowa, where I saw him win his first world title by shocking hometown southpaw Michael Nunn.
Shifty lefty Nunn was called "Second To Nunn" but, on that 1991 night by the Mississippi River, he was second to one.
And that magnificent one was a raw but rugged kid from Ann Arbor named James Toney.
No one in Iowa that night or watching it on TV wondered why they called this Michigander "Lights Out."
All Roach is doing is saying what Stevie Wonder can see, that the lamps are dimming for Toney.
Neither Roach or I brought it up but, come to think on it, Toney could be a trainer also.
Michael Marley is the national boxing examiner for examiner.com. To read more stories by Michael Marley, Click Here .
