Freddie Roach has never been a trainer to bite his tongue. His reputation of bad mouthing his fighter’s opponents continues to grow in the Pacquiao-Algieri build up. Recently Roach made it clear, he believes one of Pacquiao’s sparring partners, Viktor Postol, is actually better than Algieri himself.
Postol is currently the number one ranked contender in the world. Roach describes the Ukrainian fighter as, “A very difficult fighter. He’s taller than Algieri. He has a better left hand than Algieri.”
Then during a conference call he was asked if he was downgrading Algieri by claiming Postol is a better fighter, Roach replied, “I mean sometimes the truth hurts.”
Immediately following Roach’s commentary, Bob Arum stated, “The point is you can’t get a better sparring partner if you’re preparing for Algieri than Postol. Postol has all the physical attributes that resembles Algieri.”
The reason for Arum’s commentary can be as a result of him trying to maintain the public’s interest in the fight. Arum certainly does not want the general public to focus on the fact, Roach believes Pacquiao’s sparring partner is a better fighter than his opponent.
Whether Roach’s commentary is in fact true, remains to be seen, but Pacquiao has reportedly gotten the better of his sparring partners.
Roach told Ringtv.com, “Manny has hurt him [the six foot tall Mike Jones] a couple of times [in their sparring sessions]. He’s shown good power so far and the intensity that I want.”
South China Morning Post also reported, “[Manny Pacquiao] left Postol, the No 1 contender in the junior welterweight division, with a broken nose in training at Pacquiao’s Wildcard Gym in General Santos last Friday.”
Roach credits Pacquiao’s improvements to the top level sparring partners he’s been undergoing training camp with. He claimed this was not possible when they faced Rios.
Roach explained to the South China Morning Post, “The thing is that I brought real sparring partners for real work. The last time we fought in China our partners weren’t as good because our opponent’ [Brandon Rios] wasn’t as good.”
