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The legendary boxing trainer has been doing this thing for decades—the drills, the throwing mitts—but this summer felt different. As he primed one of his oldest prodigies, Manny Pacquiao, to regain the welterweight champion title, he quietly had his own battle to face.
By Ryan D'Agostino and Photography by GL Askew IIPublished: Oct 07, 2025 9:00 AM EDT



“Life is like boxing in many unsettling respects. But boxing is only like boxing.”
—Joyce Carol Oates

NINE DAYS BEFORE THE FIGHT​

THE TRAINER STANDS in the corner of the ring in his boxing gym. He scraped this business together from nothing, year by year over three decades, starting with a small room above a laundromat in a Hollywood strip mall. He built the first ring himself, measured it to regulation size, painted the floor, hung the ropes. When the space next door became vacant, he took that over, knocked down walls, built another ring. The gym grew. He took over the downstairs next, after the laundromat moved out. He took over the apartment on the other side of the parking lot and moved in.

He took over the parking lot itself.

He stands in the corner now, the king of this place, his place. His best fighter is here training for a big fight—a comeback, they’re calling it. This is the fighter he believed in, the man he built to win more titles in more divisions than any boxer ever.

The trainer, the great Freddie Roach, has been slowed by age and illness, and he can’t do everything for his fighter that he once did. Freddie was never a shouter, but now it’s difficult sometimes even to get a few words out. He used to catch mitts, but now, after decades and millions of punches thrown at Freddie’s hands, his fighter won’t let Freddie catch mitts anymore. The fighter is afraid he might hurt Freddie.
 




 
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