I'm not a roach hater but I just dont see how he transformed Pac

When Roach got Pacquiao he was a former Flyweight Champion. A brawler with a big left hand.

The first day Pac came into the Wild Card gym, Roach noticed Pacquiaos speed and power. As would anybody else, Roach said this guy could fight.

We saw Roach improve Pacquiaos speed and power even more. But how much of that is Roach? To me it seems like it was just Pacquiao having better nutrition and coming into his prime.

I will say under Roach he developed an in and out relentless volume punching style. With a ton of head movement in his prime.

But you can see that Roach never devised some master plan for Pacquiao. There was no smoke and mirrors to Pacquiaos style. It was basically bang on the opponent until they break down. Fight every minute of every round and eventually they will fold.

I don't want this to turn into a bash Roach thread. I'm generally curious as to what Roach did to make Pacquiao some great fighter that he wouldn't have been without Roach.

 

As much as anything, Roach probably gave Manny the self-belief an uber aggressive style would prove successful. I suspect most coaches influence their boxers between the ears way more than inside the ropes. Yeah, tweaks can be made to technique and game plans devised, but all fighters have a DNA to their style which can't be remodelled. Great fighters have great self-belief. Great coaches make sure they do....

 

Pac transformed Roach, that's the truth

 

Interesting. Roach has always been very supportive and protective of Pac. And I never thought of what you said as it pertains to instilling confidence in Pacs style. Roach really had this man believing he could steamroll over the top of anybody.

 

Look what he did to Khan too. He encouraged a boxer with a chin of glass fight on the front foot and have his greatest successes too. Khan always was attacking, despite his obvious flaws, but Roach worked with what he had rather than tried to rebuild from bottom, up. When Khan went to a defence-based coach like Hunter, he looked a lesser fighter - maybe because being told he had to protect himself first, made him doubt himself more? If you can make Khan deliver a high-risk game plan and make it work (in the main) you can sure do that for Manny.

 

This...

 

Manny alluded to his less strenuous training camp during the post fight interview. You'd think that at 40 his trainers know that he can't do as much sparring/running around etc. as he did when he was 25-30. Roach always held very hard camps; maybe Manny believes his new trainers lessened the load on him and that's why he was more energetic vs Matthysse. It also may be psychological, which would be ok as well.

 

Freddie The Joke Coach Roach didn't transform anyone, he only enriched himself with the luck of the draw he pulled out of the hat.

 

Well when Pacquiao was 25-30 his conditioning was never lacking. It was actually pretty amazing. The body adapts to stress by adapting. You take a gifted athlete like Pac and have him train like a machine you have an animal in the ring. Obviously at 40 the same type of training will just cause your body to shutdown.

 

Before Roach Pacquiao was pretty much a onehanded fighter if I recall correctly.

 

Watched all his fights, he’s just far more skilled. He’s criminally underrated just how skilled pac is with shot placement, positioning, counterpunches, the Flyweight, bantamweight versions we’re just a raw talented brawler.

Look at his fight with odlh for example, can u imagine him fighting that same fight pre-roach? Or even his fight with Diaz.

 

Roach is mostly credited with teaching Manny to use his right hook and stop relying so heavily on the straight left.

 

Any decent trainer could have done the same thing. Imagine a real generational talented trainer like Steward training Pacquiao or someone who understands defense like FMSR/Roger.

He would be even better.

 

Steward is head and shoulders above any current trainer but I'm not sure how much help he could give somebody with Mannys attributes.

 

Roach actually transformed Pacquiao into being a little bit more calibrating in his attacks.
The younger less refined version of Pacquiao was all Kamikazee, Pacquiao wouldn't have been able to sustain that type of fight into his mid to late 30's.
At the very least Roach working with Pacquaio allowed for Pacqiuao's longevity, because except for his fights with Juan Manuel Marquez, Pacquiao hasn't gotten hit a whole lot, and imo Roach has to be given credit for a lot of that.