Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach talks to journalists two days before the scheduled fight between Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Roach says aside from helping Pacquiao win over Bradley, he also wants to beat his counterpart Teddy Atlas “badly.” PHOTO BY REM ZAMORA
LAS VEGAS — Trainer Teddy Atlas has refused to be drawn into a word war leading up to fight night on Saturday. Freddie Roach? Ask the right questions and you get the intrigue.
Roach, the famed trainer of Manny Pacquiao, didn’t bother searching for words when asked if, aside from his ward beating Timothy Bradley, he also wanted to score a victory over Atlas at MGM Grand.
“Yes, badly,” Roach said.
Atlas, Bradley’s articulate trainer, quit training boxers and worked longtime as an ESPN analyst before coming out of retirement to whip the Californian boxer into shape in 2015.
Atlas and Bradley have been able to captivate the boxing world with how they were able to forge a deep bond in such a short period of time. Bradley even called the buildup for the third Pacquiao fight as the “happiest he’s ever trained.”
But Roach, who is facing off with Altas for only the first time in his career, is just not buying the tales that have come out of Atlas’ mouth throughout the course of the training camp.
“They seem to get along very well,” Roach said of Bradley and Atlas’ blossoming relationship at the trainers’ roundtable at MGM Grand Thursday morning (Friday in Manila) here.
“But all the story about a fighter and bullsh-t, that’s gonna get your ready for a fight. I hope he got him ready technically. I know we’re going to hear another story here too, he’s entertaining. But it’s not going to help a fighter.”
Atlas was at another table at the media center, finishing a session with journalists where he talked about his the looming fight and his future with Bradley.
The 59-year-old trainer, though, dodged any intrigue saying, “Freddie doesn’t influence my life. My children do, my family does, my fighter does. That’s my responsibility, not him.”
Over at the other side, Roach simply sneered at his rival.
“I don’t it’s a motivating factor in a fight, I’d rather give my fighters direction technically. Teddy’s always been a storyteller. He has good stories and the fans kind of like that a little bit. Maybe it’s good for boxing. But they don’t win fights.”
Atlas, who trained heavyweight champions like the legendary Mike Tyson and Michael Moorer, steered Bradley to a ninth round knockout victory over Brandon Rios last year.
But even Roach downplayed that stoppage by Bradley, saying even he could have looked good against the washed-up Rios.
“You can’t give [Bradley] credit for that,” Roach said. “You can’t give Teddy credit either because they had nothing in front of him.”
“I never expected [Rios] to come into a fight not trying to win and just lose like he did with all that fat hanging over his belly,” Roach added. “He was so out-of-shape for that fight I thought he retired before the fight.”
The Hall of Fame trainer even threw a subtle dig at Atlas’ experience as a trainer.
“He says he has enough experience, but he has been an announcer for a long time. Maybe he’s lost that, I’m not sure,” Roach said.
