Jump to content

  • Sign up for free and receive a month's subscription

    You are viewing this page as a guest. That means you are either a member who has not logged in, or you have not yet registered with us. Signing up for an account only takes a minute and it means you will no longer see this annoying box! It will also allow you to get involved with our friendly(ish!) community and take part in the discussions on our forums. And because we're feeling generous, if you sign up for a free account we will give you a month's free trial access to our subscriber only content with no obligation to commit. Register an account and then send a private message to @dave u and he'll hook you up with a subscription.

Khan vs Salita

Paul

By Paul,
in GF - General Forum

 Share

Recommended Posts

Paul Grand Master

Paul

Posted
Posted

I don't think there's a thread on this so I've started a new one for this article on Freddie Roach from today's paper. Enjoy:

 

Freddie Roach: the trusted guru who can make a king out of Amir Khan

 

Manny Pacquiao's trainer believes no one will be able to stop his new protégé Amir Khan at light-welterweight

 

Kevin Mitchell

guardian.co.uk Friday 4 December 2009

 

Freddie Roach surveys training at his Wild Card gym. In Newcastle tomorrow he will oversee Amir Khan's fight against Dmitriy Salita. Photograph: Sarah Lee

 

He talks in a mumbled rush, with the urgency and gratitude of a sick man anxious to live every minute of every day. And Freddie Roach sees nothing but life-affirming, good times ahead. Before him lies more glory for Manny Pacquiao. He predicts big nights for Amir Khan. And he sees himself in their corner.

 

His immediate task is to navigate Khan through what could be some rough storms against the tough New Yorker Dmitriy Salita in the first defence of his WBA light-welterweight title in Newcastle tomorrow night. If you trust Roach's judgment – and few do not – it will be over by the ninth or 10th round, with his young Bolton boxer in centre ring, arms raised and ready to take the next stage of his career across the Atlantic, for bigger nights, more glory and the sort of acceptance, perhaps, that he has not received in the country of his birth.

 

At 49, Roach, by general consensus boxing's finest trainer at work today, is a muted yet significant presence. He is a man whose struggle with Parkinson's Disease gives him not only perspective but a reason to devote what remains of his astonishing energy to the only job (outside of being either a world champion or a tree surgeon) he ever wanted.

 

Roach, from Dedham, a small town outside Boston, once was a warrior himself, a heart-driven lightweight who took too many punches towards the end of a career that spanned eight years and 53 fights, 39 of them wins, and whose love of boxing finds its most eloquent expression now in warning others not to be dismissive of the sport's dangers. Few understand so well the paradoxically simple and complex equations of fighting.

 

His gift of analysis is acute. He knew Oscar De La Hoya was weight-drained and would fade against Pacquiao, so he upped his fighter's energy levels; he suspected Ricky Hatton's chin was "gone" and his impetuosity would get the better of him so devised a one-punch, right-hook strategy to take him out early. And he sees Salita – who once sought out his expertise – as one-dimensional, an honest but limited opponent who can be systematically broken down with speed.

 

Roach is not only a painstaking strategist but an empathetic figure. He is, crucially, a trainer his fighters trust.

 

"With all the people around me," Pacquiao told the Los Angeles Times, "it's hard to find a real friend, a die-hard person like Freddie. We're honest. We don't lie to each other. The strategy we share is nothing but the truth. And I'm lucky to have him in my corner."

 

At 8am on the Monday after Pacquiao destroyed the very good Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas three weeks ago, Roach was back in his Wild Card gym on the grubby periphery of Hollywood, this time with Khan. "The thing with Freddie is he's in the gym from eight o'clock in the morning until eight o'clock in the evening," says Khan. "Not many fighters, not many coaches at his level, would do that. I can't see people like Floyd [Mayweather Sr] doing that. That's what makes Freddie special. He takes the sport very seriously.

 

"I totally trust him. If the fight is made and maybe if I'm thinking, should I take the fight or not, if Freddie says take the fight I have so much respect for him I'd take the fight. He's been in the business so long, the experience he's got. You can't buy that experience."

 

Which is exactly what Khan has done. After he was knocked out inside a minute last year by Breidis Prescott – who fights on his undercard in Newcastle against Kevin Mitchell – he sacked his one-fight new trainer, Jorge Rubio, and hooked up with Roach in America. "Moving to LA is the best thing I've ever done," Khan says.

 

Khan hangs on Roach's every word, and Roach sees in Khan the flawed diamond, the hitter with a suspect chin, a project too good to pass up. Khan and Pacquiao are near the same weight and Roach can use their respective talents to work on the other fighter's deficiencies. "I have just been training with [Pacquiao] for five weeks," Khan says. "Even the little things I've experienced from that have helped me."

 

Roach says of the arrangement: "I love hanging out with great fighters, and that's what makes me look good."

 

It makes him look so good that many respected judges regard Roach as the best in the business. Three times, the American boxing writers have voted him trainer of the year. The World Boxing Hall of Fame has inducted him, as has the California equivalent.

 

These are not accolades he finds embarrassing. For all his seeming humility, Roach is a proud man, never more so than six months ago when masterminding Pacquiao's stunning win over Hatton, whose trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr, was made to look like an identikit loudmouth.

 

The debate about the value of a trainer is an old one. Did Angelo Dundee really make Muhammad Ali a great fighter? Similar questions were asked about Jack Blackburn and his fighter Joe Louis, Charley Goldman and Rocky Marciano, and Whitey Bimstein, the cuts and cornerman who worked with so many legends. What, too, ask the cynics, of the revered Ray Arcel and Eddie Futch? Arcel put it best: "I don't care how much you know, if your fighter can't fight, you're another bum in the park."

 

Roach was no bum, but his trainer was a genius. Futch had sparred with Joe Louis in Detroit in the 30s before emerging years later to train Frazier, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, Mike McCallum, Alexis Argüello, Michael Spinks, Riddick Bowe, Wayne McCullough – and Roach.

 

Roach's own CV is impressive. He has tutored some fine champions: De La Hoya, Wladimir Klitschko, Virgil Hill, James Toney, Steve Collins, Michael Moorer, Mike Tyson and McCullough. These associations have not all been garlanded successes: Roach fell out with Hill because they were too close away from boxing, he and De La Hoya never really meshed, he had Tyson at the fag end of his career (the night Danny Williams laid him out in Louisville) and McCullough left, complaining he was not receiving enough attention.

 

Generally, though, fighters have seen in Roach something they don't always get in others – a sense of reality. The Wild Card does not accommodate dreamers – although it did start that way.

 

The story of the Wild Card and how Roach ended up there goes back to the early 1990s and the actor Mickey Rourke, who had dabbled as an amateur but whose Hollywood career was in a tailspin and who wanted a trainer to knock him into shape, for one child-wish go in the pros. Roach was idling in Vegas, wondering whether a career naming and treating trees was really what he wanted to do, when he got a phone call. "Come to LA and train me, Freddie," Rourke said, "and I'll build you a gym." He did. The gym was built – and Rourke's commitment to boxing waned.

 

He cried when Roach, whose ruthlessness is underestimated, sacked him – but smiled when he stayed on at the Wild Card, a sweat-filled torture chamber over a small shopping mall down the road from Hollywood Boulevard, with a Thai restaurant nearby that serves as a canteen for his fighters, many of whom live in basic digs across the street.

 

In 2001, Pacquiao landed in LA and joined this small, wide-eyed army. Roach detected a rare spirit in the scrawny urchin from General Santos City in the Philippines: the character of a champion. They have been together ever since, with a few rows but, mostly, enormous mutual respect.

 

As for Khan, he is the model pupil. "We've been together for a short time now," Roach says. "We won the world title quickly and I don't believe there's anyone out there who can beat him at [light-welterweight].

 

"I'm not really surprised at Amir's progress. The mistakes he was making were fundamental ones and the corrections were pretty simple. He leans very fast. He and Manny Pacquiao are very similar. They both have good power, good speed. When you have speed and power it's devastating at times.

 

"The American fans would love to see Amir fight and I think in the near future we'll get him a big, big fight. I see Amir following Manny's path. They train together and when they spar it's unbelievable. Amir is right there with Manny every step of the way. I think his future is endless."

 

Maybe not endless. But pretty good. Khan could not be in better hands.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 108
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

loadsoftrophies Grand Master

loadsoftrophies

Posted
Posted

Freddys doing the right thing by not putting Khan in with big punchers for a while as he's only 22 and still learning the pro game, especially his defence.

I really like Khans speed and power and i think he's a good lad who grown up a lot these last few years. Freddy has has a massive influence on Khans personality as he's not cocky or brash in interviews he just gives his opinion which is good to see.

 

He should stop Salita tomorrow and it could be interesting to see who he fights next, there's a rumour doing the rounds of a light welterweight tournament including Khan, Ortiz, Madiana, Alexander and two others who i can't think of which would be brilliant but it's only hear say at the moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Rheinmetal Rookie

Rheinmetal

Posted
Posted
Prescott's the undercard ain't he? Only seen the Kahn fight but he looks pretty special..

 

Prescott is fighting Kevin Mitchell in a WBO lightweight title eliminator.

 

This will be the fight of the night - Mitchell has a big punch with both hands and a dynamite left hook. He will be our next world champion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Fugitive Grand Master

Fugitive

Posted
Posted

He can fuck off with this shite. Maybe it has something to do with the fact you got beat by Prescott and people ain't all that confident in you.

 

 

Amir Khan's father has refuted his son's claims racism has prevented him from becoming a "superstar" in Britain.

Khan defends his WBA light-welterweight belt for the first time against Dmitriy Salita in Newcastle on Saturday.

 

But the 22-year-old insisted he has suffered from racial bigotry and said: "If I were a white English fighter maybe I'd have been a superstar."

 

However, Amir's father Shah told BBC Radio 5 live: "I don't agree with it. I don't know why he made those comments."

Link to comment
Share on other sites
odris Grand Master

odris

Posted
Posted

Anyone think Salita will win? Might have a bet.

 

Also check this out

 

Dmitry Salita (Russian: Дмитрий Салита; Ukrainian: Дмитро Саліта; "Star of David"; born April 4, 1982) is a Ukrainian-born undefeated boxer from Brooklyn, New York in the junior welterweight division.

 

He is Gay and he has a 30-0-1 record, with 16 KOs.[1] He is 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m), and his reach is 69".[2]

 

Off his Wiki page, random.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...