23.02.04 – By JOHN GARFIELD: I interviewed Freddie Roach on Saturday afternoon February 21 at the Wild Card Gym. Question: Freddie what is the status of Jeff Lacy?
FR: Right now he’s back at home in Florida seeing some specialists. He got hit by one of the Russian cruiserweights last week. He got hit behind the ear. His vision has been a bit blurred from that. We don’t know exactly what’s wrong yet. I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.
Q: When did he realize it wasn’t just the normal result of having his bell rung?
FR: He told me afterwards when he was shadow boxing that he felt like…dizziness, and when he went home later, he felt sick… and it escalated from that point on.
Q: They don’t have any idea as to what it is?
FR: No, not yet. I haven’t heard from the doctors he’s seeing yet, but I’m sure we’ll know by Monday, though. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious.
Q: Can you tell me what his sparring sessions were like and who he worked with?
FR: The Russian cruiserweight—he’s 18 & 0 –and the Andrade brothers from Orange County. He was doing very well…getting hit with the right hand a little too much, because of carrying his left a little too low. We’re gonna try to make some adjustments there. Keep his left hand a little higher. I told him: when you drop that left hand, I want it for a reason, to set up a counter shot…Not just have it down all the time. Just by having it down there, it leaves it open for the right hand. So, we’re working on that, and on his angles.
Q: I was amazed at how many amateur fights that young man had. Does it make it harder with ingrained habits to adjust the kinds of things you want to?
FR: Definitely! We’ll try to make adjustments. He’s been doing it that way for so long, though, he’s going to have to make a lot of effort to change it. He’s a capable athlete. I believe he’ll be capable of doing it.
Q: As a fighter, were you able to make those adjustments when you were told?
FR: If Eddie (Futch) showed me something, when I was a fighter, to make an adjustment, I could make it, yeah, but I probably carried my left hand too low, too. But, again, if you want to carry your left hand low, it’s gotta be for a reason. He was making the adjustments in sparring already. The last couple days, he was keeping the left up better than he had been. So…it’s repetitive. He’s just got to drill it into his head over and over again until it becomes a habit.
Q: Aside from moving his head and keeping his hands a little low, what else were you trying to work on?
FR: Not moving straight back, and using angles. Not standing right in front of a guy. The thing is: He’s a great puncher. He hits you a couple of hard shots, but he wants to stand there and see the results. And that’s something he can’t do. He’s gotta step off to the side, or make some type of movement not to be just right in front of the guy waiting for him to throw back at him.
Q: His punching power, did you see it evident in the sparring sessions?
FR: Yeah, he knocked a couple guys out. He really has a lot of power.
Q: Tell me about Bernard Dunne since he’s back?
FR: It’s going OK…He boxed with Guerrero yesterday from Goosen’s Gym. He did OK…but not as well as he could. It’s just his second day back boxing from when he went home and got married. He’s learning. He knows the mistakes he made. We’re going to make adjustments on Monday, and go at it again.
Q: In terms of his overall progress, what adjustments does he have to make to get to the next level?
FR: He’s a real talented kid, but he’s another one flirting with danger too much by keeping his hands a little too low…for no reason. When you’re fighting a southpaw, it changes the rules: It’s hard to keep your left low to counter the guy’s jab because that’s his closest punch to you. You gotta keep the left hand up, especially when fighting a southpaw because, otherwise, he’s gonna beat you to the punch every time. And that’s what happened yesterday; Guerrero (The Ghost) was beating Bernard to the punch with his jab.
Q: My impression is: Bernard’s got good lateral movement and ring generalship, but he wants to go to war too much. How do you see it?
FR: He’s very capable of moving side to side. He’s just got to get it through his thick skull that he needs to do that, because he’d rather fight you. It’s in his nature to fight. He’ll just trade with you. When he was boxing with Shane Mosley, Shane told me, ‘the kid’s so talented. He just doesn’t know when to go after the kill, though. He goes after the kill too quickly. He needs to break the guy down and know when the guy’s ready to go.’
Q: When does somebody know when a guy’s ready to go?
FR: Just experience. When you’re in complete control, then you can go for the power shots. Until then, if you go for the power shots too early, you’re capable of being hit with a power shot back. You just don’t want to get caught swinging with the guy and not following his shots. That’s when you get knocked out. So, Bernard needs to settle down a little bit—use his boxing ability, break these guys down a little bit, take them into the later rounds, and take them out when they’re ready to be taken out.
Q: Give me your assessment of Brian Viloria?
FR: Not a bad performance last weekend. He did OK. His best round was the eight round, and he almost knocked the guy out. He was in a little bit of a lull after that round. He let the guy back in the fight. The guy probably won the ninth round…but Brian won 11 out of 12 rounds. It was a good performance against a pretty tough opponent. The guy was a little bit durable. I would have liked to see Brian use his body attack a little bit more to break that guy down because, obviously, the guy had a pretty good chin. He took some big shots. When those guys have those chins, you gotta go to the body and see what they have down there.
Q: Brian had good power, faster hands, and better combinations, but he appeared to be standing too tall to accurately land the finishing shots. Why?
FR: He wasn’t sitting down on his punches and using his power like he can. He was going for the speed stuff, and up a little too high on his toes with the speed shots, and he missed a lot of shots. He’s been off for nine months, and I think the layoff hurt his timing a little bit. We’re just going to work on sitting down and using that power. What’s different about Brian and the rest of flyweights in the world is that he can punch. Not too many flyweights can knock guys out. That’s what the fans want to see.
Q: Brian is a thickly muscled kid; he looks like a compact middleweight. Is it tough for him to make this weight?
FR: The weight was a little bit of a problem this time for the first time in Brian’s career. He dropped 13 pounds in the last ten days – a little bit too much – so I’m trying to keep control of his weight, not let him get as heavy as it was.
Q: Give me your impressions of “The Ghost” and Art Simonyan?
FR: “The Ghost:” Joe Goosen’s hot charge right now. A southpaw – very talented kid. He’s boxed with Bernard Dunne and Alex Arthur. He’s kind of a physical fighter; he uses his elbows and shoulders. He got a little rough in there with Bernard and him yesterday…because they’re both physical guys and they won’t take crap from each other. It was good work. And, he’s definitely good sparring for all my boys. He’s a good fighter. He can do nothing but improve my guys – especially with his southpaw stance. I put Israel Vasquez in with him, and Israel’s fighting a southpaw for the title at the Olympic on March 25th or 26th.
Simonyan has quick hands –very, very speedy. He’s had a little bit of a problem with his own hands, so he hasn’t been able to go as many rounds as his trainer would like. Definitely a real good prospect. Maybe not as far along as “The Ghost” yet, but coming, though.
Q: I saw something the other night; either it was the luckiest accident that ever happened or the shrewdest tactic I’ve ever seen. Did you see the Clarence Vinson fight?
FR: You mean when he knocked him out with his head?
Q: Exactly. Tactic or Accident?
FR: I know Clarence pretty well. I don’t think he’s that kind of a guy, to be honest with you. He’s a pretty good kid. I’ve seen elbows followed by hands before but not the head
Q: Is it worth considering when the going gets rough?
FR: You’re bound to get cut banging heads like that. Probably something we’re going to stay away from.
When I posed the question to Justin Fortune, Roach’s conditioning coach, if Vinson’s head-butt-right-hand KO of Roberto Chacon was an accident or a tactic…
JF: I’m not too much interested in Clarence Vinson. If I had the remote and it was on channel ten, and my thumb was on channel fuck’n nine, I wouldn’t move my thumb to change the freak’n channel to watch Clarence Vinson. Was it an accident or intentional? Sometimes a guy will throw a shoulder to stand the opponent up…It could have been. If it was…then good luck to him! It worked. If it was an accident, it still worked. If he did it, great! — Good tactics. If it wasn’t, it’s a great fuck up.