2013 Trainer of the Year: Freddie Roach

For Freddie Roach, 2012 was rather disastrous for his training career.  His good friend and star pupil Manny Pacquiao was controversially upset by Timothy Bradley in a lackluster performance, and then was later frighteningly put to sleep by Juan Manuel Marquez.   Also in 2012, Roach was unable to motivate the talented young diva, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., to train properly for the biggest challenge of his career versus Sergio Martinez.  There were also whispers from some in the boxing media that his deliberating physical condition was worsening, and perhaps hindering his effectiveness as a trainer.  Professionally, 2012 was a mess of a lost year for Freddie Roach.

Turn the calendar to 2013, and things drastically improved. Due to his success in reinvigorating the careers of Ruslan Provodnikov, Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao, Freddie Roach is the 3morerounds 2013 Trainer of the Year.  The year was quite a surprising success.

When Provodnikov got the opportunity to challenge Timothy Bradley in March of last year, it first seemed like easy pickings for Bradley.  The Siberian was an “action fighter” and ESPN Friday Night Fights staple—mostly at junior welterweight I should add–but his seemingly limited skill-set made for an uninspiring choice of an opponent for Bradley’s welterweight belt.  Little did we know how much effective work Roach was doing with Ruslan at the Wild Card gym. They worked on technique and brought out even more of the monster within the monster.

Ruslan Provodnikov gave Timothy Bradley a savage beating, and survived enough dangerous spots of his own that Roach considered stopping the fight on a couple different occasions.  Most media outlets chose this as the fight of the year and round 12, when Ruslan went for broke and nearly knocked Bradley out, was the 3morerounds Round of the Year.  Nobody expected this type of performance from Provodnikov and Roach deserves a lot of the credit for that.  Similarly, though Pacquiao related commitments kept him away on fight night, Roach deserves credit for the work in the gym later in the fall that allowed Provodnikov to devilishly dine on heart and soul in beating what was left of Mike Alvarado and taking a share of the 140 pound title.

As we have written before in great detail, it was quite a surprise when Miguel Cotto fired Pedro Diaz and asked Freddie Roach to train him for the rest of his career.  On October 5, 2012, in Orlando, Florida, we saw the fruits of their labor together against Delvin Rodriquez.  As he predicted, Freddie Roach was able to bring back the latent aggression in Miguel Cotto, including a re-commitment to the body attack.  The result was a devastating 3rd round TKO.  It was an awesome performance.

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