I've never seen Freddy so quite in a fight. Between the last few rounds he barely spoke a word. Whats up with that? I've thought for a while that the balance of power between Freddy and Manny has changed and Manny is calling the shots more and more. Has Manny been marginaling Roach in recent times and was last night an indicatation that Roach has had enough of it? Freddy looked pretty emotional before the start of the fight. Manny didn't show his usual energy and aggression. Shane didn't help but has the great partnership that was Freddy and Manny seen it best days?
oh you didnt know? Arum and Roach looked scared iat the weigh-in according to some idiots on here and thats a good determination to predict who is going to win the fight. The emotions of the trainer and promoter...not the fighters.
I don't really give a flying **** about the ******* v Flamos thing. I respect the boxing abilities of both fighters and trainers. It was hard not to notice Freddie wasn't himself. Personally I didn't like to see that. What Roach has done for Pac over the years can't be underestimated and I wouldn't like to think for whatever reason he feels he has nothing to say when they are in the corner.
Manny was doing nothing wrong wasnt getting into any risky situations, so was there a need to say anything? they both know the gameplan. sometimes folk read too much into things. on the other hand mannys adviser has been trying to get roach sacked for years may be something happened before the fight
Roach was pissed, because the crowd was booing, and he predicted pac would be the first to knock shane out.
Who knows, Manny was doing his job, and Roach probably wanted to tell him to go for it for the sake of his image but knew better than to force his fighter to take risks.
I don't really buy into the 'Roach didn't have to say anything as the game plan was working' thing guys. The other two cornermen never stopped talking to Manny. It's just Roach is usually a real general in the corner and he prides himself on giving stategy in the course of the fight. It just looked to me that Freddie wasn't ruliing the roost and dominating the corner the way he normally does.
I agree with strongback. It seemed like Freddy couldn't get a word in due to Buboy and the other guy being in Manny's ear. They were pissing me off to be honest!
At first Freddie seemed 'on edge' to me when the fight began. Even after Manny was in control though, I agree he wasn't much of a presence in the corner. Not sure....
I'm going to post some personal thoughts from the Mosley-Pacquiao fight later on in the day as a neautral in the whole Mayweather-Pacquiao debate (god help me). However I do think Freddie was realising certain limitations with Manny's technique if I am honest, and that he knew Manny couldn't do what needed to be done in this fight to truly dominate. For example when Manny actually tried to force the action against Shane, Shane started to use the ring, back up and move laterally. Manny couldn't land those impressive combinations he wanted to but he also couldn't cut off the ring and didn't show any real understanding of how to do it. That was the thing that stood out most for me. Shane as everyone on the forum has noticed in the last 2 years is starting to feel his age and by round 9 was struggling with moving away and Manny started to get to him a bit more and clearly swept those last 4/3 rounds "knockdown" aside. Until then though, I thought Manny looked lost with Mosley's movement. Its just too bad Shane was able to try and throw anything after he made Manny commit to those punches that were catching wind as he was moving forward, but that is another issue. I think Roach knew he couldn't get Pacquiao to do something he really can't, and that he didn't need to tell Manny what to do for the last 4 rounds because Shane was gassing completely and Manny doing what Manny does would start to catch him cleaner and cleaner for there on in. Just what I think of course.
Thats another plausible reason I think. I do know that Buboy is moving into training himself, and maybe Roach was willing for Buboy to take reigns in this fight with Freddie there in case Buboy was telling Manny the wrong info or Manny getting into trouble.
Could it have anything to do with his medical condition? Roach made a comment in the last fc360 that caught my attention. He said "it's fight week, this is what I live for" ...nothing new here, but it made me think will roach's condition begin to worsen when pac's career is complete. To take that a step further, is it already beginning to happen? It seems lately (fc360, fnf with concepcion, sat with manny) that roach is not as "sharp" when speaking as he has been in the past. He recently tried to bring in moorer to "take some of the load off" and now it seems buboy has more of a voice in the corner. Is roach slowing down? Any validity to this?
I think the balance of power shifted in the Cotto fight when there was all that bs in the media about a rift between Manny and Roach. In that camp Manny clearly showed that he was calling the shots and then went out and banged with Cotto which was exactly what Freddy told him not to do. Manny and Freddy have said that Manny wanted to prove to the world that he could take the bigger man's shots but I also think he wanted to prove to Roach that he was the one in charge.
Give it a break will yah. Roach and Manny have been together for a decade. They both always made it clear, one without the other would be nothing. no homo though