Losses are as inevitable as scars. If you don’t have some of both, you probably haven’t done much. Or learned much. Freddie Roach, fulltime trainer and street-corner philosopher, has them, accepts them. Maybe even values them.
“Part of life in boxing is losing,’’ Roach said.
The other part to that equation is what Roach hopes to accomplish Saturday night in Ruslan Provodnikov’s bid to upset Timothy Bradley in an HBO-televised fight at Carson, Calif. Victory is a cure-all that eliminates the noisy contagion so symptomatic of defeat. Lose a few and the cheap shots begin to circle like pests in search of a free lunch
Roach has heard them. His own string of high-profile losses in 2012 attracted them. Amir Khan fell to Danny Garcia. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. lost every round but the 12th to Sergio Martinez. Then, Manny Pacquiao dropped face-first onto the canvas from a Juan Manuel Marquez right hand that landed like a wrecking ball. Even the one fight that seemed to be a lock for Pacquiao, went the other way on the scorecards and – inevitably — against Roach. Bradley got a split decision.
Is there no end to this losing streak? Hard to tell. But the tone has changed. Whispers about Roach went public. Roach even heard them on a conference call from Bradley trainer Joel Diaz.
“Freddie Roach is not my concern,’’ Diaz said. “My concern is the fighter.’’
Diaz could have stopped right there. But he didn’t. If Roach isn’t Diaz’ concern, he wasted a lot of conference-call time ripping him.
“Freddie Roach was just a name that was created,’’ Diaz said. “I think, Freddie Roach lost the love of the sport. He created a name and it’s out there, but he doesn’t have passion for the sport that he had a few years ago.
“I’ve seen it in the last Marquez fight. I’ve seen it in the fight before, the third fight with Marquez. Freddie Roach is the least of my concern for any fight. I just focus on the fighter. Freddie Roach is always trying to play mind games. Freddie says Tim is going to run. That is just Freddie playing mind games. They don’t know how we are going to fight. He is trying to get under Tim’s skin. At the end of the day, Tim is going to be a winner, and that’s what matters.’’
Whew, no telling what Diaz would say about somebody who does concern him.
In a sure sign that there’s been no erosion in Roach’s wisdom, he didn’t accept the invitation to indulge in some tired trash talk. He’s kept his attention on his Russian welterweight, which is where it should be.
“I could tell him where to go but he doesn’t know me,’’ Roach said “He doesn’t know what I do every day. He doesn’t see me in the gym working with these fighters. I know he’s just saying it to get under my skin. I have a game plan and the right fighters to carry that game plan through. On the 16th (Saturday), we’ll see who’s the better coach or who’s the better man.’’
It’s no secret that trainers are only as good as their fighters. It’s the same with coaches. Phil Jackson without Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant would have been just been another guy holding a clipboard on an NBA bench. Roach knows that. Diaz might learn that.
“It’s not about the trainers,’’ Roach said. “My fighter is the one who’s going to win the fight, not me. Whatever he says, I don’t care. I don’t have time to be mad at someone. I don’t read anything he says. I just don’t have time for that.’’
Roach doesn’t buy into the redemption angle. But a slice of it is there for the winner. It’s the element that injects some intrigue into Bradley- Provodnikov. A Provodnikov victory means Roach can begin to get beyond 2012. A Bradley win means Bradley can move beyond a victory so controversial that it turned him into a virtual loser.
Of the two, however, the stakes are bigger for Bradley (29-0, 12 KOs). A loss to Provodnikov (22-1, 12 KOs) would only confirm what the public believed about his split-decision in June over Pacquiao in his last fight. It was a coincidental gift created by incompetent scoring.
“Most of the public in the world knew Pacquiao won,’’ said Roach, who didn’t need to be reminded that two judges and Bradley were not part of that consensus. “Just three people and Bradley’s trainer thought Bradley won. So, you have four guys against the world. We’re not worried about that.’’
I’m not sure Provodnikov can beat Bradley. But Roach won the conference call.
AZ NOTES
Two-time Mexican Olympian Oscar Valdez (3-0, 2 KOs) makes his fourth pro appearance Saturday is in a junior featherweight six rounder against Jose Morales (6-4, 1 KO) in a junior-featherweight on the Bradley-Provodnikov card.
Valdez, who fought in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Games, has family in Tucson. He grew up in Nogales on the Mexican side of the border with Arizona.
