After THAT knockout at the hands of Breidis Prescott 10 months ago, Amir Khan turned to the expertise of Manny Pacquiao’s trainer – Freddie Roach.
It may prove a seminal moment in the Bolton boy’s career. The 54-second debacle saw his status with the British boxing public suffer a severe dent and was a far cry from the adulation he received after returning from the Olympic Games in Athens with a silver medal.
Since ditching Jorge Rubio and appointing the former lightweight boxer as his trainer, Khan has recorded victories over Oisin Fagan and an ageing Marco Antonio Barrera.
While Naseem Hamed’s conqueror was a legend in his time, Barrera is clearly not the indomitable force he once was and only time will tell how significant that victory really was.
Still, Roach has confidence that his charge will become WBA light-welterweight champion after his fight with Andreas Kotelnik on Saturday, and who are we to argue?
Roach’s list of fighters reads like a who’s who of great boxers from the last 20 years.
Pound-for-pound king Pacquiao may well be the highest-profile boxer currently training in his Wild Card gym but plenty of other names of similar calibre have strode through those doors, such as Bernard Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya, Steve Collins and even the iron man himself, Mike Tyson.
Such is Roach's versatility and world renown that he also trains mixed martial artists – albeit concentrating on their stand-up skills.
Chuck Liddell – the UFC poster boy for the last decade and recently inducted into their Hall of Fame – was one such client and Freddie has also advised the greatest MMA practitioner currently plying his trade, middleweight Anderson Silva.
Roach has also recently worked with Britain’s Dan Hardy, whose rise up through the welterweight division is gathering pace.
What marks Roach out is his keen technical eye as well as being tactically astute.
He told the press for months that he had spotted a flaw in Ricky Hatton’s technique and that Pacquiao would finish the fight within the first three rounds. Hatton’s noted durability and warrior spirit made many laugh that suggestion out of town, but it was the Filipino’s trainer who was smiling at the end of round two.
It was clear from the Prescott defeat that Khan had to work on his defence, especially seeing as he appears to have a chin forged in the glassworks of Pilkington.
The youthful enthusiasm shown in his amateur bouts must be tempered in order to succeed at the sharp end of the sport and a canny operator such as Roach should be able to iron out the openings in his aggressive style.
If he can’t turn Amir Khan into a world champion, then Frank Warren will be looking for another fighter to top the bill in the future because – as far as trainers go – there is no higher authority than Freddie Roach.
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