Freddie Roach Defiant In Loss. Says Mayweather Ran, Pacquiao Was Aggressor

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Freddie Roach“I love challenges. This is the biggest challenge of my life, it’s finally here, it’s finally in front of me. I’ve been looking forward for this for a long, long time. I’m gonna get my fighter as ready as possible. We are in the toughest fight of our life. We’re fighting the best fighter in the world, and we’re gonna kick his ass” said Freddie Roach at the press conference to announce Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Manny Pacquaio a few months ago.

He was confident but knew the scale of the task at hand was great. Fast-forward to the post fight press conference. Pacquiao, his protege for over a decade, had just been comprehensively outboxed in the usual Mayweather fashion, losing both his title and the perception that he was the undefeated American’s boogeyman in the process. Fighthype.com were there to catch Roach’s thoughts on the fight.

“He[Pacquiao] did pretty well. We were working on putting him close to the ropes using footwork. To keep him guessing. We were coming and going and it worked quite well. I thought those flurries that we had on the ropes were very effective but we just didn’t do enough of it. Once he told me the shoulder was hurt and he was having trouble throwing it, it was difficult to get those punches off more often in the fight.”

The news emerged shortly after the fight’s conclusion that Pacquiao walked to the ring with a injured shoulder for which he was denied a painkilling injection before he gloved up. To what extent this effected his performance we can never know, but a dejected looking Roach felt it was significant enough to mention it.

Roach outlined the successes and failures of Pacquiao’s efforts, sighting a lack of sustained pressure as a key factor in what cost them the fight.

“Backing him up was part of our plan, taking charge of the fight. Putting him on the ropes and outscoring him on the ropes was a big part of the plan. We just couldn’t be as consistent as we wanted cuz the shoulder started hurting more. The jab and the leading uppercut was okay but the hook was a little hard to throw.”

Pacquiao pinned Mayweather against the ropes and in the corner plenty of times during the course of the the fight and had some real success, but these occasions were reduced significantly by Mayweather’s defensive prowess. He would bend at the waist, down and up, before tying Pacquiao up when he got close enough, or pushing him back to the middle of the ring with his own accurate shots. He did not allow Pacquiao to be as effective as he wanted.

Roach was then asked what he thought of Mayweather’s legs now, having repeated his belief in the build-up that they were becoming unreliable under the watchful eye of Father Time. Roach’s reply had a bitter aftertaste.

“I thought he ran very well. When he wasn’t liking the punches he was just running and moving backwards and I feel Manny should have won a lot of those rounds because he was the aggressor. But it didn’t go that way.”

The rushing bull that is repeatedly pierced by the elusive matador is the aggressor in his own competition, but it does not help his cause in the end. Mayweather’s movement, be it forward or backwards, served to nullify the vast majority of Pacquiao’s attacking efforts and he landed punishing counters consistently. Mayweather’s style can be called whatever you choose; there is no doubting it’s effectiveness.

In the end a resigned Roach summed up the night that could have been his and his fighter’s crowning achievement.

“I thought it was a very close fight, I thought he did well but I know we can do a lot better.”