MANNY Pacquiao and Freddie Roach smoked the peace pipe on Wednesday as the two prepared to work together again when the World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight champion stakes his title against Adrian Broner January of next year.
The 58-year-old Roach however, is not about to get his old role as Pacquiao’s lead trainer, but instead will only work as a ‘training supervisor’ or consultant for the Jan. 19 match against Broner at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao will continue to train under longtime friend Buboy Fernandez, who took over from Roach when the two parted ways.
It was Fernandez who supervised the training of Pacquiao for his last fight against Lucas Matthysse, who the Filipino stopped in the seventh round last July to wrest the WBA crown in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Nonetheless, the reunion would be most welcome for one of boxing’s most successful partnerships. The two parted ways in July of 2017 following Pacquiao’s controversial unanimous decision loss to Jeff Horn in Brisbane, Australia to yield his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight belt.
Pacquiao, who turns 40 three weeks from now, and Roach talked for about 15 minutes at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, marking the first time the student and teacher came face-to-face since the Horn loss.
Roach, a seven-time Trainer of the Year awardee which he all won while handling Pacquiao, said he was ‘just touching base’ with the Pacman, although Sports Illustrated later confirmed that he already agreed to work with the legendary Filipino fighter again.
Together with Pacquiao and Roach during the meeting were Joe Ramos, Pacquiao's Canadian adviser Mike Koncz, and Marie Spivey, the long-time assistant of Roach.
The two talked just hours after Pacquiao and Broner concluded the second of their short two-leg press tour in Los Angeles, California. Both fighters kicked off the promotional tour with a press conference in New York City on Monday.
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