AS both Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito remain unassuming in promoting their bout, trainers Freddie Roach and Robert Garcia have started to provide the verbal fireworks that is sure to prop up next month’s highly anticipated ring battle.
During separate interviews with Manila Standard, both Roach and Garcia sounded livid when told about a brewing duel between the prominent trainers.
Coach Freddie Roach
It all started when Garcia, in a previous Internet report made a claim of having a 2-0 edge in his head-to-head clash with Roach.
Garcia said he scored his first win when his American ward Steven Luevano won by disqualification over Roach’s Filipino pupil Bernabe Concepcion last August, 2009 in Las Vegas.
The second win, Garcia asserted, was when he first handled Margarito in the Mexican’s return from a much-publicized suspension opposite Wild Card Gym-trained Roberto Garcia, staged May of this year in Mexico.
Roach, meanwhile, refuted his rival’s claim by first stating that he never trained Garcia for the Margarito fight.
“I wasn’t in his corner. He trained at my gym, that’s all. He is Eric Brown‘s fighter” said Roach, who then went ballistics when asked for his comment on Garcia’s 2-0 tally.
“Tell him to go (expletive) himself because I’m bringing my ace this time. What’s this childish? Like ‘Oh I beat one of your fighters before’.. What does that do with this fight?” said an irked Roach.
He also belittled Concepcion’s defeat, where the Filipino got disqualified for punching Luevano after the bell sounded ending the seventh round, illegally knocking the then world champion out.
“But whose fighter ended up being knocked out?” asked Roach.
In an apparent retort, Garcia lambasted Roach’s insistence that he has nothing to do with Garcia’s fight against Margarito.
“Now he’s trying to change the story, but I remember clearly when Freddie Roach made some comments to the press saying Roberto Garcia hitting so hard and he was going to knock out Margarito. To say that, obviously he was training Roberto Garcia,” said Garcia.
Garcia went on with his critical remark on Roach.
“He didn’t want to go to Mexico because he knew he was going to lose. He didn’t want to look bad inside the ring that night,” said Garcia. “For Freddie not to show up was a disrespect to Roberto Garcia who deserves to have Freddie Roach in his corner. If my fighter lose a fight, I take responsibility even if I don‘t show up in his corner.”
Meantime, Pacquiao will have several rounds of sparring today at the Wild Card Gym, his first session since arriving in Los Angeles last weekend.
Pacquiao is aiming to conquer his eighth division when he tangles with Margarito on Nov. 14 (Manila time) at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
At stake in the 12-round junior middleweight match set at a catch weight of 150-lbs is the vacant World Boxing Council crown.