Roach’s store of boxing gems

Legendary trainer Freddie Roach isn’t allowing a battle with Parkinson’s Disease curtail his development of a new era of boxing superstars. Simon Lewis spoke to him in Los Angeles.

HE MAY have been flying high from the biggest victory of his training career but it didn’t take long for Freddie Roach to return to base, plotting the flight path to stardom for another squadron of fighters at his Wild Card gym in LA.

The week after Roach had overseen star pupil Manny Pacquiao’s eight-round dismantling of his former fighter Oscar De la Hoya in Las Vegas, the 48-year-old was busying himself once more in the hubbub of the Wild Card — where superstars, eager pros and a legion of local kids paying a bargain $50 a month to work out there — all share floor space.