Tweet
On July 19th, world-class boxing trainer Freddie Roach will officially enter the world of mixed martial arts when he works the corner of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski during the inaugural Affliction: Banned event. Over the past few months, Arlovski, who will be facing Ben Rothwell, has been a regular at Wild Card Gym where he's been working closely with Roach to improve his stand-up skills.
Freddie Roach, a former professional boxer himself, was taught by the legendary Eddie Futch. After a career of tough and exciting fights that earned him a record of 39-13 (15 KOs), Roach hung up his gloves and began his career as a trainer, molding and working with champions like Manny Pacquiao, James Toney, Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Virgil Hill, Israel Vazquez and Wayne McCullough to name a few. Now Roach embarks into the world of mixed martial arts with another former champion, Arlovski, and he looks forward to bringing his success from the boxing world.
While it may generate some additional ‘boxing is dying/MMA is killing it’ chatter from the clueless talking heads in the mainstream media, it makes perfect sense for both parties involved. Arlovski has become a very tentative fighter since his third fight with Tim Sylvia and this has undermined not only his popularity with fans but his success in the ring/cage. Roach is the perfect guy to help AA get back to the killer wildman power puncher wearing vampire fangs. And for Roach, he’s likely of the same opinion of a number of serious boxing people that “a fight is a fight” and that most of the wisdom he’s learned in ‘the sweet science’ is readily applicable to ‘the savage science’ of MMA
Freddie Roach, a former professional boxer himself, was taught by the legendary Eddie Futch. After a career of tough and exciting fights that earned him a record of 39-13 (15 KOs), Roach hung up his gloves and began his career as a trainer, molding and working with champions like Manny Pacquiao, James Toney, Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Virgil Hill, Israel Vazquez and Wayne McCullough to name a few. Now Roach embarks into the world of mixed martial arts with another former champion, Arlovski, and he looks forward to bringing his success from the boxing world.
Comment