By Chris Robinson
On Wednesday, Freddie Roach made headlines after taking a few shots at one of the sport's hottest names, former champion Brandon Rios.
Rios lost his title on the scales this past weekend as he failed to make the lightweight limit of 135 pounds during his weigh-in for his clash with Manchester’s John Murray. Rios would go through with the bout and stop Murray inside of eleven rounds at Madison Square Garden, yet he now appears to be in line for a move up in weight.
That news is music to Roach’s ears as he currently works with the man many regard as the sport’s premier junior welterweight in Amir Khan.
“Amir Khan will expose Brandon Rios at 140,” Roach exclaimed. “I definitely want to see that fight. I want Amir to stay at 140 and beat Rios just for me. Brandon Rios made fun of me before with my Parkinson’s, and even though it was funny, I feel I was disrespected. Brandon is an exchange fighter. He doesn’t even know how to throw a feint, he has no game plan and you can tell.”
Upon catching wind of Roach’s remarks, Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia was quick to point out that Rios will be able to go tit for tat with anyone at 140 pounds.
“Brandon Rios is moving up to 140," Garcia said. "We’re not thinking about it. The last time he made 135 was against [Urbano] Antillon and he was really having trouble. We were thinking about moving up to 140 but there was talk about Brandon fighting [Yuriorkis] Gamboa, so we were trying to hold it as much as we could so we could get that fight. But there’s bigger fights at 140. Brandon is a big guy. He’s probably bigger than any 140-pounder out there. He’s strong and he could match up against any of them.”
Rios failing to make weight for his fight with Murray definitely doesn’t appear to be a case of a fighter lacking discipline given his rugged work ethic in the gym, and Garcia points out that Rios was weakened by the end of camp.
“It took a lot,” said Garcia. “The last four pounds were the hardest. He had a hard time losing those last three pounds. It was just impossible. He couldn’t break a sweat. It was really, really hard on him.”
Roach also took a dig at Garcia during his interview, saying of the Rios-Murray scrap.
“The fight the other night was just two guys in a ring swinging at each other. There was a lot of action with no skill. It seems as if his coach isn’t teaching him any skill,” said Roach.
Garcia responded by pointing to a few of Roach’s recent appearances in the corner with Jorge Linares and then Manny Pacquiao. Linares was bloodied and stopped by Antonio DeMarco on October 15th despite starting strong while Pacquiao struggled against Juan Manuel Marquez last month despite pulling out the majority-decision verdict.
“I didn’t hear anybody say anything about him in the Linares fight,” said Garcia. “I guess he did everything right. Even though he lost and took a beating, I guess he did everything right. I didn’t hear anybody say anything about Freddie Roach after the Pacquiao-Marquez fight, so I guess he just never makes mistakes.”
As far as taking any personal offense to Roach's comments, Garcia brushed them off.
“Not at all. It’s just a learning experience for me. Hearing something like that from Freddie Roach just makes me work harder and to work on things like that with my fighters,” Garcia added.
