By Mitch Abramson
During his recent stop in New York, Freddie Roach, famed trainer of Manny Pacquiao, discussed his role with the U.S. Olympic boxing team, from his favorite boxers, to his desire to reverse recent history to importing his own fighters to serve as sparring partners. Roach is serving as a consultant to the team and is also involved in a trainer assistance program in which he has made his Wild Card gym in L.A available for one-on-one tutorials with the Olympians, all in preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London. Roach has spent the better part of a month in Colorado Springs, home of the Olympic training facility, working with the Olympic boxers, he said.
“We have some good guys up there,” Roach said in Manhattan during a presser for the Nov. 12 fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. “We’re doing the best we can with the kids. They’re coming along good. They’re sparring with most of my fighters. What we wanted to do was give the kids a challenge. Instead of sparring the fighters who they’ve beaten in the Olympic trials and so forth and just dominating those guys, we felt like we had to bring in better competition to make them excel. We definitely did that and they’re holding their own with the pros. And it’s going quite well.”
He’s brought in a number of his own fighters, such as the undefeated middleweight Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin, as well as the undefeated cruiserweight, Lateef Kayode to work with the boxers.
Roach intends to trek back to Colorado Springs on Friday to continue working with the team in preparation for the World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan from Sept. 22-Oct. 10, the final hurdle in the Olympic qualifying process. And then, he’s off to the Philippines to help Pacquiao prepare for his own fight with Marquez.
He’s already grown fond of some of the fighters on the team and mentioned as his favorites, Jose Ramirez, the 132-pounder from California who beat the 2008 Olympian, Raynell Williams in the finals of the trials last month.
“We get along well,” Roach said of Ramirez. “He’s very talented. He listens very well.”
Roach, who cannot work the corners for fights during the Olympics, also pointed to the Staten Island light heavyweight, Marcus Browne, as another favorite, along with the 165-pounder Jesse Hart out of Philadelphia.
“He loves the way I wrap his hands,” Roach said of Browne. “There’s a lot of good coaches out there and we’re all trying to bring out the best of them to make them winners.”
In July, Roach spent a few days working with the Olympian Rau-shee Warren, a flyweight, and Raynell Williams (who failed to qualify for the 2012 Olympics) at his Wildcard Gym.
Roach, along with national team coach Joe Zanders, are both trying to reverse a losing trend in London with the country’s first gold medal since super middleweight Andre Ward did it in 2004.
Mitch Abramson covers boxing for the New York Daily News and BoxingScene.com.