Freddie Roach has agreed to work in Manny Pacquiao’s corner for his upcoming fight against Adrien Broner 33-3-1 (24) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 19.
Roach was collateral damage in the fallout of the Filipino powerhouse’s 12-round unanimous decision loss to unheralded Australian Jeff Horn at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium in Australia in July last year.
During his multi-city press tour this week to officially announce the fight the 39-year-old Pacquiao revealed his plans to add former coach Roach to his corner team. Roach trained Pacquiao for over 15 years and was instrumental in developing him into an eight-division world champion and one of the most popular and well-known boxers of the modern era.
“Freddie is not young anymore. I feel pity for Freddie, praying for the healing of his sickness,” said Pacquiao 60-7-2 (39) this week, who used his best friend and cornerman Buboy Fernandez to train his for his last fight, a TKO7 win over Lucas Matthysse in Malaysia in July.
“My thinking is, he can use Buboy to do mitts in training, and just supervise and watch the training.”
The news appeared to come out of left field for Roach, who responded by saying that he was yet to speak to Pacquiao since the Horn fight and would only consider the role if the Filipino senator contacted him directly.
That happened this week at Pacquiao’s suite at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills, just a few miles up the road from the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood where Roach transformed a young, skinny, fast and explosive Pacquiao from a virtual unknown into a global superstar.
“Manny reached out directly. We sat together one on one. I’ll be in his corner January 19,” said Roach via a statement through spokesperson Marie Spivey, according to RingTV.com.
Pacquiao will begin his training camp in the Philippines before relocating to Los Angeles in the United States on December 22.
Roach will join head coach Fernandez, strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune and MP Promotions boss Joe Ramos in Pacquiao’s camp with a cutman yet to be decided upon.
 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 19.){kind=link}