One of the best known boxing trainers in the world, Freddy Roach won the Trainer of the Year award in 2003, 2006, and 2008. Now training Manny Pacquiao, Roach has started to turn his considerable talents towards mixed martial arts as well. Coming from a boxing family in Dedham, Massachusetts, he is far more that “just” a trainer. Roach also participated in high-profile matches during his fighting years against such stellar opponents as Bobby Chacon, Greg Haugen and Hector “Macho” Camacho. Known as a banger who would take a shot to give a shot, Roach started his career 26-1 before ending it 13-12 when the accumulated punishment took its toll. It was as a trainer that he would make his mark, however, as he trained Oscar De La Hoya for his match against Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and now trains prized pupil Manny Pacquiao out of his Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California. Unlike many boxing trainers, Roach is very open to MMA and says, “A good fight is a good fight regardless of the rules.” He trained Ardrei Arlovski for his match against Fedor Emelianenko in Affliction and has given boxing instruction to many other top-fighters MMA fighters such as B.J. Penn and others. Now gaining mainstream notoriety due to his appearances on the HBO boxing reality show 24/7, the affable Roach is straightforward, unapologetic, and calls it like he sees it. Just like in his boxing career, Roach comes straight at you, doesn’t mind taking a few shots, and doesn’t pull any punches!

Q: Haven’t you started to train some MMA fighters for boxing?
A: Yeah, Andrei Arlovski is fighting his first pro fight on June 27th. He has very good hands and has come a long ways. Usually the MMA guys won’t settle down and punch because they need to be a little lighter on their feet to avoid takedowns and kicks. So he’s had to learn how to plant his feet and Michael Moorer, who is my assistant trainer here at Wild Card, has been helping him out a lot with that. He and Michael get along really well. MMA guys are a lot more square in their stance but they can learn. Anderson Silva, for example, wants to fight Roy Jones, Jr. He’s 4-0 as a boxer in Brazil. So if he wants to fight that caliber he’ll have to make some changes but he is very athletic and he works hard. I think with his natural ability and his physical skills that he has a pretty good chance. He picks things up quickly and learns quickly. It’s a good time to fight Roy Jones now, too. Ten years ago it might not have been such a good time to take him on, but timing is everything (laughs).

Q: As a long-time boxing fighter and trainer, what do you think of mixed martial arts?
A: I like a good fight, you know? I’m not against MMA like a lot of people want me to be. They want me to hate the sport and I don’t. I think there’s a big potential crossover audience. I’m sure that there’s a lot of MMA fans who love to watch Manny Pacquiao fight. I think the two sports are good for each other and I think Affliction and the UFC are good for each other. I think competition is good and I think unification fights are good. Why not have the best UFC fighter against the best Affliction fighter? I don’t see why they keep pushing that away. There’s always going to be competition out there. That’s the way of life. You can’t have a monopoly on anything nowadays. So I think it would be good for the sport to get two big promoters with their best fighters against each other. It was like when Manny Pacquiao fought Oscar De La Hoya, with one being represented by Top Rank the other by Golden Boy. You had the two biggest promotions in the world behind that match and they got huge pay-per-view numbers as a result. Competition is great.

Q: How has the HBO series 24/7 affected you personally and boxing in general?
A: 24/7 is probably the best thing that anyone has ever come up with to promote the sport of boxing. You get a lot of people outside of your normal boxing audience who watch that show and a lot of them will end up buying that fight because they want to see the outcome of the build-up and of all the training. Then they also get familiar with the fighters’ entourage or crew which also brings exposure to other people in the sport and builds up a general awareness of the people in it. Honestly, 24/7 changed my life. I used to be known only in boxing circles but now I get recognized on the street by just anyone. Pretty girls will come up and tell me, “I saw you on 24/7.” Now I know those girls aren’t watching fights but they are watching HBO and that helps the sport. When people come up and ask me for an autograph now its because of that. It shows the other side of us; that we’re real people, nice people, and that we’re not just animals.

The truth is that the nicest guys in the world are usually the fighters. When we did a commercial here for Nike for extreme athletes with people like Tiger Woods and Steffi Graf the film crew told us, “You guys are the nicest people in world. Those other people are so difficult about everything. They’re prima donnas.” Fighters are just good people. Take Andrei Arlovsksi or Anderson Silva, for example, they are very honest about themselves. Silva will flatout say, “I’m pretty good at kickboxing but I suck at boxing.” This guy is the best MMA fighter in the world and he has no false pretences about himself and no ego. Arlovski will come to the gym and will bow when he enters and leaves. That type of respect is just a nice thing to see. So I’m happy that 24/7 can show that side of people like Manny Pacquiao and his crew. We’re just regular people and that helps fans to connect and care about the sport.

Q: What is the hardest part about training an MMA fighter to strike?
A: The hardest part is the distance, of course. A boxer is much more comfortable closer to their opponent while an MMA fighter is not because they don’t want to be within distance to get kicked. With Andrei Arlovski, who just wants to learn how to box, he doesn’t like the ground game anymore so much. So it’s easier with him because he already has that mindset. My first real kickboxer I trained for boxing was Lucia Riker, who was a four-time muay Thai world champion. She was the best woman’s fighter in the world. She would have killed Christy Martin but she broke her leg right before the fight and because it didn’t sell a lot of tickets it was never rescheduled. I trained her for several years and the biggest issue was getting her comfortable close. But I think MMA has evolved because people are most excited about the stand-up now, even though there is a science to the ground game and I know that. I was a wrestler in high school so I know a little about the ground game, but to the mainstream fans it’s still a little bit boring. So when you get the stand-up and it results in a knockout it is a little more exciting and people like that and it sells tickets.

Q: In MMA right now, due to the emphasis on stand-up, there is a lot of brawling. Do you ever cringe when you see the lack of technique?
A: Well, yeah. That is why a lot of MMA guys come to me now, to learn how to throw punches. A lot of time they’ll do slapping and I tease them a little bit about that. Tito Ortiz just had a back injury, for example, but he told me that he wanted me to help train him for his next fight. So if I can help them out then I’ll do it. But I have a lot of great help here, too, at Wild Card. Michael Moorer was great fighter and safe online casino he helps me out with a lot of the things I do. Michael likes UFC and MMA more than me and is a real GSP fan. He just beat my guy, BJ Penn, which was too bad but GSP was just too big and just dominated him in the later part of the fight. The first fight was competitive but the size difference was just too much this time, plus GSP is very technical. A good big guy will beat a good small guy, usually.

Q: How do you think a heavyweight boxer like Michael Moorer would do in the cage?
A: Michael would probably do very well, you know, because he likes MMA. He has done grappling before and he is comfortable with it. I threw him out of the gym one day when he was training for a fight because he was wrestling around in the ring because he likes it (laughs). But he’s had his career and now he’s my assistant and he’s very good at it and I think he is moving more in that direction. I know Ray Mercer is a little older now and has been training some MMA and grappling but it is a hard thing to do. It is tough to learn a whole new sport especially when you get set in your ways. I spend time with these MMA guys and we train back and forth a little bit and they try to show me a few things on the ground but I’m just so set in boxing that I just want to throw a left hook and get it over with. But if that left doesn’t land then I’m probably in trouble (laughs)! Boxing is what I do and what I know. So if I had to choose what I like the best then I’d say boxing, of course. I’ve been doing it since I was six years old but if it was the other way around and I had grown up doing grappling then I’d probably pick MMA.

Q: How do you train a striker to prevent the takedown?
A: A lot of it is distance again, and how you move in the ring. A lot of guys coming out of today’s Olympic style boxing have a passive defense where they just block a shot and slip it but don’t set up a counter-shot or come back with a combination. They’re thinking too much in the moment. A true professional boxer will be thinking ahead and will have counters in mind to any situation. We work a lot of that with Andrei, of course, and try to get him into more of an active mindset where he is always moving and actively responding to different situations.

Q: How do you prepare a striker for an MMA fight?
A: When we were getting Andrei Arlovski ready for the Fedor fight, for example, for three months we told him that when Fedor hits the corner he throws a right hand. We know that and we saw him do it every time. When he feels like he is in danger he throws his best shot, his big right hand. So when he hit the corner we told Andrei to feint him, draw that out of him, and then hit him with a counterpunch. But Andrei got a little excited and made a young man’s mistake because everything was going too easy for him early in the match. He tried that flying knee from too far away and he got caught. That is the beauty of both sports, though, that one punch can change everything. I love that in competition, you know. You can dominate someone for two-and-a-half minutes but the beginning doesn’t count but the ending does. I thought Andrei had a great game plan going in and he won his fight before that against Ben Rothwell and he ended it in spectacular fashion so he just couldn’t resist his instincts. He is second guessing himself now, of course, but one thing about Andrei Arlovski is that he was back in the gym two days later training for a fight.

Q: Do you think a fighter should take time off after a tough loss?
A: Boxing and real life are the same thing. You get knocked down, you get up, you brush yourself off, and you get on with life. You don’t lay down and let a setback get the best of you. If someone tells you to take some time off because you earned it that could ruin you. If you don’t get right back in there and start looking forward then you’re going to be stuck in that loss for a long time.

For more information about Freddie Roach, Manny Pacquiao, and the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California visit www.wildcardbc.com or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .