LOS ANGELES—Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach emerged from his meeting with Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday night sounding upbeat although it was still unclear if he has indeed been rehired.
The meeting was set at 9:30 pm but Roach arrived a few minutes before the scheduled time accompanied by his executive assistant Marie Spivey.
Present during the short meeting were Pacquiao’s new take-charge guy Joe Ramos and Canadian adviser Mike Koncz.
It was only Roach who spoke about the 15-minute conversation with Pacquiao, who is getting ready to defend his World Boxing Association welterweight crown against Adrien Broner on Jan. 19, 2019, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“Just touching base with Manny and just starting to figure things out,” Roach told the Bulletin.
“We’re fine,” said Roach, whose services were not needed when Pacquiao beat Lucas Matthysse of Argentina last July in Malaysia.
In Roach’s absence in the Matthysse bout, it was Buboy Fernandez who presided over the training camp, the first time in a long while his longtime friend called the shots in the training and in the actual fight.
While Roach expressed optimism that he will return to the team, he could not categorically say if indeed he will regain his old post.
“I hope so,” said the 58-year-old Boston-born cornerman when asked if another discussion is needed to make his return official.
As Roach answered questions from the Bulletin along the hallway of the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, Spivey was shaking her head as though it was her who was being asked.
She motioned to Roach to keep on moving en route to the elevator in an effort to shield her boss from further questioning in relation to the sensitive issue that has marred the two-city promotional tour that began in New York last Monday.
During the New York leg, Pacquiao told the media that Roach will be tapped as a training supervisor or consultant and Fernandez taking over the overall preparations.
Fernandez had voiced out his reluctance to let Roach get involved once again, saying he and Pacquiao are very comfortable with the new setup.
Even conditioning coach Justin Fortune expressed his concern over plans to bring back Roach, stressing that his presence could create negative vibes in the camp.
“Why go backwards?” said Fortune, who teamed up with Fernandez in the demolition of Matthysse, the first time in almost a decade that Pacquiao had scored a stoppage. (Nick Giongco)
