Freddie Roach did not make the 1976 U.S. Olympic team, the one
Freddie Roach did not make the 1976 U.S. Olympic team, the one with Ray Leonard and Leon Spinks, the one that produced a fresh batch of marketable boxers.
However, he was an alternate, and participated in a pre-Olympic tournament in Montreal.
“That’s why I’m familiar with the scoring system,” he said. “I knocked a guy down three times. They gave him the decision.”
Roach’s revenge is underway.
Not that Freddie’s career was hampered by the setback. He is boxing’s pre-eminent trainer and the guy who tells Manny Pacquiao to take two very deep breaths when Pac-Man returns to the corner.
“That way,” Roach said, “the TV microphones have gone to the other corner and I can go ahead and tell him what I want to.”
But Roach is tired of watching the Olympians come home carrying grudges instead of medals. He is joining USA Boxing as a consultant to make sure the American boxing team is worth at least a few minutes of NBC time in London next summer.
“When the (international) judges see Freddie Roach’s name affiliated with the American team, I think we’ll get treated a little fairer,” said Joe Zanders, the Long Beach gym veteran who is the U.S. head coach.
“I’ve seen the pinnacle of USA boxing and I’ve seen the world improve and I’ve seen us go the other way. We’re about 2½ years behind. The program has been in a shambles.”
It hit bottom in Beijing three years ago. Worse yet, you probably didn’t hear the sound.
Deontay Wilder had the only medal, a bronze. Only one other boxer got past the second round.
Four years before that, Andre Ward became the only American in this millennium to win gold.
But then Oscar De La Hoya and David Reid are the only U.S. fighters to win their weight classes since 1988.
It is not a talent gap. Look at the rosters. The 1996 team featured Floyd Mayweather Jr., Fernando Vargas and Antonio Tarver. The 2000 team had Jermain Taylor, Rocky Juarez, Brian Viloria and Jeff Lacy.
“In the last Olympics nobody gave a (expletive) about anybody else,” Roach said. “Just because you lose, you don’t just go home. We need that team element.”
There were tugs of war between personal coaches and USA staff, and there was resentment over a residency program that trapped the boxers in Colorado Springs. And there were distractions.
“I don’t know how to break it to my mom, but just stay home this time,” said flyweight Rau’Shee Warren, going for his third Olympic team. “I don’t want to take care of the tickets. Don’t answer no calls, no Facebook, MySpace, Twitter. I want to leave for the Games with what I brought here.”
Warren also said that the U.S. team didn’t prepare itself for awkward European styles.
But Roach said the former scoring system stunted the growth of the Americans and dissuaded more talented boxers from getting involved.
Kelly Pavlik lost early in the 2000 trials and decided he shouldn’t wait four years to get shafted again. He could have brought a gold medal into a starving boxing marketplace.
The old method made it difficult to score points, especially in combinations. Three of five judges had to push their buttons within a second to register a point.
The new system is more liberal, although it’s unclear whether the scoring will be made public after each round.
“That’s the worst thing in boxing,” Roach said, “when everybody knows the score. If my guy is up 20-0 I want him to be up for 40 after two rounds.
“But the new system is offensive-minded. A few more combos, you can be more active. In the past the scores for a round might be 3-2. Last time we tried this we had a 25-14 round. It’s what amateur boxing needs. We lost an audience because of the old system.”
Roach will hold camps for the men’s and women’s teams at the Wild Card gym, in Hollywood, and it’s likely he’ll be in the corner at the Olympics. But the team will be picked through Olympic trials, as usual.
What encourages Roach is a guy like Steve Geffrard, a heavyweight from Boca Raton, Fla., ranked the top amateur in the U.S.
Geffrard paid his own way to L.A., stayed in the Vagabond Motel next to Wild Card, and worked righteously for a week. Roach couldn’t coach him, but they talked.
That’s all Roach wants to see right now. Commitment.
“I’m not in this to get new fighters,” he said. “I’ve got enough. I just want to see us do well again.”
And the politics?
Roach laughed as he wrapped Warren’s hands.
“I turned pro and found out there were politics there, too,” he said. “But you get paid for it.”