Roach´s good intentions not enough with moody Moorer

Michael Marley June 19, 2009 RIO DE JANEIRO--Freddie Roach is, after all, capable of human error. I´ve got a news flash for you so was his training mentor, Eddie Futch, and ditto for Angelo Dundee, Gerogie Benton, Freddie Brown, Whitey Bimstein and all the rest of the great trainers. You can add Manny Steward to the list as well. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then Coach Roach just hit a minor pothole. He told Tris Dixon of The Boxing News in the UK that he has parted ways with former heavyweight champion Michael Moorer. (Self-editing note: I´ve come back to this article to make this amendment. In speakling to the English reporter, Roach did say he did not `think` Moorer would be part of the Roach training corps any longer. So maybe the door at the Wild Card remains open for the Monessen, Pa., native. Here is the pertinent question and complete answer: How has Amir ´(Khan) changed since you’ve had him? I think he’s a completely different fighter now. He’s getting better all of the time. He’s not going to make the mistake he made with Prescott ever again. Between me and Alex and my team it’s working pretty good. Unfortunately I don’t think Michael Moorer will be with us anymore. Roach, trying to help one of his former charges, brought MM into the Wild Card Gym fold and wanted him to be a second set of eyes and ears for him. It evidently did not work out as Roach tells Dixon that `five out of six´of his fighters did not get along well with Moorer. I am not surprised. Roach made a mistake in trying Moorer in that role in the first place. I´ve known Moorer for many years, dating back to when Steward trained him, when he was a young and rising heavyweight contender. Steward could have told Roach, who probably knew it on his own, that Moorer can be a moody guy. And Teddy Atlas, mercurial enough in his own right, could have verified that. Moorer is not and never has been a go along to get along guy. He would make a lousy Scoutmaster. Moorer did have a verbal row with Manny Pacquiao Canadian Shadow Michael Koncz but I doubt that had any effect on Roach´s decision to unload Moorer. The gym marriage of Roach and Moorer was destined to end in divorce because of their different personalities. Moorer thinks he is entitled to a certain status as a former heavyweight champion and I think he is due that. The fighters he worked with, though, probably saw it differently. Hey, the great Ted Williams did not make it as a manager. Knowing and teaching are two different skill sets. No one is really to blame. Let´s just call it what it was, a personality mismatch, and let it go. I stil give Roach high marks for giving it a shot. He meant well and so did Moorer. Moorer will land on his feet doing something else. He is a capable person. But this is one Hollywood audition which did not work out.