SI.com · Aug 20, 2021
Inside Manny Pacquiao's Uncommon Relationship With Longtime Trainer Freddie Roach
LAS VEGAS – There was at least one. Maybe two. Freddie Roach can’t remember. How many people have tried to get him fired from Manny Pacquiao’s corner?
Bob Arum did. That was back in 2007, when Pacquiao was training for a fight against Jorge Solís. Roach spent part of that camp in Puerto Rico, training Oscar De La Hoya. Roach worked Pacquiao’s corner against Solís. Arum gave the trainers check to his assistant, Justin Fortune.
Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s longtime advisor, has. Buboy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s close friend and assistant trainer, says Roach, still is. “Buboy wants me gone so bad right now,” says Roach. “I used to help Buboy. Now he just wants to be the head trainer.”