Before he apprenticed under Eddie Futch, the legendary American trainer Freddie Roach first got known as a fearless featherweight warrior.
He did not make it real big inside the fight ring. But one great thing about the famous Hall-of-Fame trainer, who pushed the once gangling and often confused Manny Pacquiao all the way to superstardom, is his forthright attitude.
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A certified banger, Roach cannot be expected to take a single step back once he has geared up for battle both inside the ring and off it.
He stood his ground, shaking and stammering, to claim a right to an early training schedule, but instead received a supreme insult after he got kicked in the chest.
The violent altercation exploded four days before the showdown between Pacquiao and Brandon Rios at The Venetian Macao last November.
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The dirty kick was delivered by Colombian-American strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza.
For the record, Roach had earlier booted out Ariza from Team Pacquiao—which Ariza had served for four years—a move that instantly developed into unconcealed animosity.
By the way, it cannot be denied that Roach scored with a vengeful blow after Pacquiao, propped back by a humble and retiring British conditioning coach, all but blew Rios out of the ring for a trouble-free comeback win in Macau.
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After this, Rios, who was prepared by Ariza, failed a drug test and thus got penalized by the China Boxing Federation in the form of a five-month ban.
Not too long afterwards, Ariza was again in a hot spot after he was caught (on video) pushing something to Marcos Maidana between rounds in his successful challenge for the WBA welterweight crown of the favored Adrien Broner.
Those misdeeds, naturally, pushed Ariza to the shameful end, enough for Roach to momentarily drop his guard.
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Roach continued to pounce on as he goes hard on Ariza in an interview with FightHype.com.
“I didn’t get along with the guy, and one reason he doesn’t work for me is because he’s a little shady,” Roach, claiming Ariza had often operated in mysterious ways, explained.
“He used to give Manny a drink every day before workout. When I asked him, ‘What’s in that drink?’ he would not tell me,” continued Roach. “I told him I need to know what’s in that drink, you know, because he’s giving it to my fighter and if something goes wrong, I’m gonna get the blame.”
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For the record, Ariza managed to do his thing on Pacquiao, who then went on to win big bulk-up bouts against the likes of Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto and Oscar De La Hoya.
You see, any other trainer would’ve kept those strange assistance delivered by Ariza under wraps indefinitely.
Roach, however, could not help but be brutally frank.
Said a Twitter comment: “Didn’t I tell you Money (Mayweather) was right all the time?”
Another tweeted: “Roach just put his foot in his mouth. In trying to make Ariza look bad, he just straight up told on himself and Manny.”
There, no doubt, was a case of live and let live.