Roach Throws Verbal Jabs at Cotto
Roach Throws Verbal Jabs at Cotto
Posted Nov 05, 2009 2:57PM By Lem Satterfield (RSS feed)
During the buildup of WBO welterweight champ Miguel Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao, the challenger's trainer, Freddie Roach, says he's having fun at the expense of Cotto and his chief cornermen, Joe Santiago.
Cotto "is slower," and "gets hit so much more" since his 11th-round knockout loss to Antonio Margarito, and "his defense sucks, because he's training himself," said Roach.
See what else Roach had to say after the jump.
FanHouse: You've been doing an amazing amount of interviews, are these the most you've done other than when you were training Mike Tyson?
Freddie Roach: Without a doubt, yes
FH: Is it any more enjoyable?
Roach: Yeah, I'm having fun with it, getting inside Miguel Cotto's head a little bit, and getting his trainer [Joe Santiago] all upset. It's a little bit of fun, yeah.
FH: Do you feel that you're being successful at it?
Roach: I know how to sell the fight. I'll say things to get inside of his head. They'll say that they're not affected by anything at all, and they're not paying attention to what Freddie Roach says.
But then they say that, 'We will knock Manny Pacquiao out.' I mean, they're obviously, they're taking it really hard.
FH: What was this about Miguel's trainer, Joe Santiago, and a trophy?
Roach: The thing is, the kid [Santiago] wants me to put up my [Trainer of the Year] trophy up that they gave me -- the best trainer trophy they gave me. The only reason he wants that trophy is because he's never fought before, so he's never even had a trophy.
I've got [friggin] thousands of trophies. He can have that trophy, for Christ sakes. It's not going to make him a better trainer.
FH: This is what you've heard that Joe Santiago has said?
Roach: Yep.
FH: What do you believe, in particular, are getting to Miguel Cotto's head?
Roach: Ah, just when I say Manny will knock him out in one round, stuff like that. They get all upset.
FH: Haven't you harped on your belief that Miguel's not fully recovered from his 11th-round knockout loss to Antonio Margarito?
Roach: It's true. Let's face it. When you're undefeated, and everything is going well in your career, you're invincible, and you're the world champion two times. And then, you get knocked out for the first time in your life, it takes a while to get over that.
Some people never get over that. I wasn't at his level, but I had won 27 pro fights and I got knocked out for the first time. It changed my whole life.
Yeah, I'm having fun with it, getting inside Miguel Cotto's head a little bit, and getting his trainer [Joe Santiago] all upset. It's a little bit of fun, yeah.
-- Freddie Roach
FH: How do you believe that the Margarito fight has changed Miguel Cotto?
Roach: He's a different fighter now. Margarito definitely took something out of him -- and I'm not saying that Margarito had anything illegal going on [with the reported plaster in his gloves,] but Cotto took a real beating in that fight.
When you take a beating in that fight, sometimes, there are significant changes in you.
FH: So you think that's happened to Miguel Cotto?
Roach: If you look at his fights after he's lost to Margarito, he's lost a step. He's slower, he gets hit so much more, his defense sucks, because he's training himself, you know?
FH: You feel like Miguel's the one in control of his own training, and not Joe Santiago?
Roach: I don't think that, I know that. You can see that. He's the boss. He calls the shots.
FH: And that's not good?
Roach: Of course not. It's like, when Eddie Futch left me, and I was kind of by myself, and so forth, I was doing great when Eddie was with me. You always need someone to correct you.
But when I was training by myself and basically had a guy in the corner to give me a drink of water, I was making fundamental mistakes, where, before, Eddie corrected me all of the time.
FH: You don't believe that's happening with Miguel Cotto?
Roach: He has some flaws that are mistakes that he's going to make in the fight with Manny that we're going to take advantage of. I've been studying his tapes -- I've been watching him since when he was first coming up all the way until now.
FH: What do you believe has Joe Santiago so upset?
Roach: I made a comment about the trainer, how well he catches punches on the mits -- it's like [friggin] slow motion.
FH: You're deducing this from watching the 24/7 series or ...?
Roach: Yep. And I know where he trains, and I know people at the gym he trains at, so I get reports every day. It's no biggie. They've seen him work out, so I get reports.
FH: I know that you've gone with bigger, stronger sparring partners and as many as seven or so for Manny, and that you've offered them $1,000 if they can knock him down?
Roach: Sparring has to be real. I mean, that's why I give them the incentive of $1,000 if they knock Manny down, because I want them to give their best. Because, that's what we're going to be up against when we fight.
We spar three days a week, and the sparring is really hard, and the days we don't spar, we work on the mistakes that we made before.
FH: What do you know about Miguel's sparring sessions?
Roach: His sparring partners, I don't really know them that well. I've never seen either one of them fight, but I know that they've been using southpaws to emulate Manny.
FH: Do you believe that it's easy for them to do that?
Roach: It's really hard to judge Manny's speed. It's like, I remember when I fought Hector Camacho, I thought he was fast. And I thought that I had fast sparring partners, but then when I got in the ring with him, he was [friggin] 10 times faster than my sparring partners.
When Manny gets in front of him, the speed of the guys that Miguel is sparring with will be like slow motion.
FH: Have there been any distractions with all of the exposure that Manny's been getting, including, most recently, on the Jimmy Kimmel show and on the cover of Time ****zine?
Roach: Manny loves stuff like that. He loves the limelight. There will never be an audience too big for Manny Pacquiao. He puts that smile on and enjoys. The Jimmy Kimmel show was great.
We taped it early in the afternoon, he wasn't out late or anything like that. He's a very disciplined person. When Manny Pacquiao walks through the doors of the boxing gym, everything stays outside. It's only boxing inside of the gym, and that's all that we do.
FH: You've trained guys like Mike Tyson, Virgil Hill, and, Marlon Starling, but have you ever had a fighter make the cover of Time ****zine?
Roach: Nope. That's pretty darn impressive.
FH: You correctly predicted that Manny would knock out Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, but did he surprise you with anything that he did in those fights?
Roach: Neither of those fights surprised me. I expected both knockouts.
FH: How much better do you believe that Manny's going to look against Miguel Cotto?
Roach: People are doubting Manny's conditioning and so forth because of the typhoons and all of that stuff that happened in Manilla, but believe me, we didn't miss a beat. We didn't miss a day.
It was extremely sad, of course, because a lot of people died. But we did everything that we could do. We didn't melt in the rain. We did everything we had to do during the typhoon.
We never missed a day in the gym, and Manny's 100 percent. In this fight with Cotto, I expect another knockout and I expect another perfect fight.
Posted Nov 05, 2009 2:57PM By Lem Satterfield (RSS feed)
During the buildup of WBO welterweight champ Miguel Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao, the challenger's trainer, Freddie Roach, says he's having fun at the expense of Cotto and his chief cornermen, Joe Santiago.
Cotto "is slower," and "gets hit so much more" since his 11th-round knockout loss to Antonio Margarito, and "his defense sucks, because he's training himself," said Roach.
See what else Roach had to say after the jump.
FanHouse: You've been doing an amazing amount of interviews, are these the most you've done other than when you were training Mike Tyson?
Freddie Roach: Without a doubt, yes
FH: Is it any more enjoyable?
Roach: Yeah, I'm having fun with it, getting inside Miguel Cotto's head a little bit, and getting his trainer [Joe Santiago] all upset. It's a little bit of fun, yeah.
FH: Do you feel that you're being successful at it?
Roach: I know how to sell the fight. I'll say things to get inside of his head. They'll say that they're not affected by anything at all, and they're not paying attention to what Freddie Roach says.
But then they say that, 'We will knock Manny Pacquiao out.' I mean, they're obviously, they're taking it really hard.
FH: What was this about Miguel's trainer, Joe Santiago, and a trophy?
Roach: The thing is, the kid [Santiago] wants me to put up my [Trainer of the Year] trophy up that they gave me -- the best trainer trophy they gave me. The only reason he wants that trophy is because he's never fought before, so he's never even had a trophy.
I've got [friggin] thousands of trophies. He can have that trophy, for Christ sakes. It's not going to make him a better trainer.
FH: This is what you've heard that Joe Santiago has said?
Roach: Yep.
FH: What do you believe, in particular, are getting to Miguel Cotto's head?
Roach: Ah, just when I say Manny will knock him out in one round, stuff like that. They get all upset.
FH: Haven't you harped on your belief that Miguel's not fully recovered from his 11th-round knockout loss to Antonio Margarito?
Roach: It's true. Let's face it. When you're undefeated, and everything is going well in your career, you're invincible, and you're the world champion two times. And then, you get knocked out for the first time in your life, it takes a while to get over that.
Some people never get over that. I wasn't at his level, but I had won 27 pro fights and I got knocked out for the first time. It changed my whole life.
Yeah, I'm having fun with it, getting inside Miguel Cotto's head a little bit, and getting his trainer [Joe Santiago] all upset. It's a little bit of fun, yeah.
-- Freddie Roach
FH: How do you believe that the Margarito fight has changed Miguel Cotto?
Roach: He's a different fighter now. Margarito definitely took something out of him -- and I'm not saying that Margarito had anything illegal going on [with the reported plaster in his gloves,] but Cotto took a real beating in that fight.
When you take a beating in that fight, sometimes, there are significant changes in you.
FH: So you think that's happened to Miguel Cotto?
Roach: If you look at his fights after he's lost to Margarito, he's lost a step. He's slower, he gets hit so much more, his defense sucks, because he's training himself, you know?
FH: You feel like Miguel's the one in control of his own training, and not Joe Santiago?
Roach: I don't think that, I know that. You can see that. He's the boss. He calls the shots.
FH: And that's not good?
Roach: Of course not. It's like, when Eddie Futch left me, and I was kind of by myself, and so forth, I was doing great when Eddie was with me. You always need someone to correct you.
But when I was training by myself and basically had a guy in the corner to give me a drink of water, I was making fundamental mistakes, where, before, Eddie corrected me all of the time.
FH: You don't believe that's happening with Miguel Cotto?
Roach: He has some flaws that are mistakes that he's going to make in the fight with Manny that we're going to take advantage of. I've been studying his tapes -- I've been watching him since when he was first coming up all the way until now.
FH: What do you believe has Joe Santiago so upset?
Roach: I made a comment about the trainer, how well he catches punches on the mits -- it's like [friggin] slow motion.
FH: You're deducing this from watching the 24/7 series or ...?
Roach: Yep. And I know where he trains, and I know people at the gym he trains at, so I get reports every day. It's no biggie. They've seen him work out, so I get reports.
FH: I know that you've gone with bigger, stronger sparring partners and as many as seven or so for Manny, and that you've offered them $1,000 if they can knock him down?
Roach: Sparring has to be real. I mean, that's why I give them the incentive of $1,000 if they knock Manny down, because I want them to give their best. Because, that's what we're going to be up against when we fight.
We spar three days a week, and the sparring is really hard, and the days we don't spar, we work on the mistakes that we made before.
FH: What do you know about Miguel's sparring sessions?
Roach: His sparring partners, I don't really know them that well. I've never seen either one of them fight, but I know that they've been using southpaws to emulate Manny.
FH: Do you believe that it's easy for them to do that?
Roach: It's really hard to judge Manny's speed. It's like, I remember when I fought Hector Camacho, I thought he was fast. And I thought that I had fast sparring partners, but then when I got in the ring with him, he was [friggin] 10 times faster than my sparring partners.
When Manny gets in front of him, the speed of the guys that Miguel is sparring with will be like slow motion.
FH: Have there been any distractions with all of the exposure that Manny's been getting, including, most recently, on the Jimmy Kimmel show and on the cover of Time ****zine?
Roach: Manny loves stuff like that. He loves the limelight. There will never be an audience too big for Manny Pacquiao. He puts that smile on and enjoys. The Jimmy Kimmel show was great.
We taped it early in the afternoon, he wasn't out late or anything like that. He's a very disciplined person. When Manny Pacquiao walks through the doors of the boxing gym, everything stays outside. It's only boxing inside of the gym, and that's all that we do.
FH: You've trained guys like Mike Tyson, Virgil Hill, and, Marlon Starling, but have you ever had a fighter make the cover of Time ****zine?
Roach: Nope. That's pretty darn impressive.
FH: You correctly predicted that Manny would knock out Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, but did he surprise you with anything that he did in those fights?
Roach: Neither of those fights surprised me. I expected both knockouts.
FH: How much better do you believe that Manny's going to look against Miguel Cotto?
Roach: People are doubting Manny's conditioning and so forth because of the typhoons and all of that stuff that happened in Manilla, but believe me, we didn't miss a beat. We didn't miss a day.
It was extremely sad, of course, because a lot of people died. But we did everything that we could do. We didn't melt in the rain. We did everything we had to do during the typhoon.
We never missed a day in the gym, and Manny's 100 percent. In this fight with Cotto, I expect another knockout and I expect another perfect fight.
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