How Freddie Roach has beaten back Parkinson's to be one of boxing's best trainers

LAS VEGAS – Freddie Roach stands at a press conference in a giant tent out behind the MGM Grand. He grips the podium in an effort to stop his hands from shaking. He can’t help his head from crunching down onto his right shoulder. His voice is halting. It’s all a reminder of the Parkinson’s that plagues him.

He’d rather be in a gym somewhere, preferably back at the Wild Card in Hollywood, preferably across from Manny Pacquiao, wearing mitts and working the grind because the ease that comes from doing hard things makes him forget how hard it can be to do easy things.

Roach is 55, and his slew of Trainer of the Year awards and his stable of past, current and future champions are signs of immense success. His constant presence at the biggest fights in boxing overshadow the stark reality that there is nothing else like this in America, someone of his stature dealing with such an unrelenting, crushing disease.

He’s at his best even as illness tries to anchor him down.

“With Parkinson’s, sometimes you wake up and think: ‘Why the [expletive] did they pick me?' " Roach told the London Telegraph. "But, you know, that’s part of life.”

He openly talks about how the challenges can crush his spirit, that pity and frustration are natural emotions that need to be overcome. It also, he notes, focuses him on the task at hand. In lieu of a wife or kids or vacations or almost any obvious hobbies or interest, the work isn’t just his life; it may be what’s keeping him alive.

This is everything.

Which makes this fight everything about everything.

No one involved appears as fired up for Saturday’s long-awaited Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao as Roach.

Obviously, everyone involved wants desperately to win, but Roach is the one chirping the loudest, wearing his emotion on his sleeve, more than willing to admit that this isn’t just another fight. He appreciates the history. He covets the opportunity at hand.

Mayweather represents the white whale of his career and Roach knows that there are only so many chances to compete on this stage, against that kind of elite fighter. This is everyone’s crowning achievement, everything you can dream of in a sport based on long, lonely hours far from the spotlight.

And with Parkinson’s, no one knows just how long his career can realistically last. Like a fighter, time sadly ticks for the trainer.

“I think I take pride in my work," he said Thursday. "And I hate to lose."

Roach almost had Mayweather beat back in 2007, when he was training Oscar De La Hoya and believed through the first six rounds that they were waging the perfect kind of fight. Then Roach believes De La Hoya lost focus and Mayweather won a split decision. It was a bitter defeat. Floyd is now 47-0.

Roach even took great pride in training Pacquiao to beat De La Hoya a year later, the frustration fueling him. He called out his former pupil and then reveled when Pacquiao stopped him after the eighth round. It was an odd revenge fight.

Now here comes another chance at the vaunted Mayweathers, and this time with Pacquiao, the perfect student for Roach.

When they first met 15 years ago, Pacquiao was anything but some sure-bet, all-time star. He was very good, but had been knocked out twice, a fact Manny didn’t shy away from. On the first day they met, Pacquiao showed Roach video of both defeats, which isn’t normally the way to entice a top trainer to take over your career.

“No, but after [when] we were in mitts together, I was so impressed with his power and speed it took one round for me to go over to my people and say, ‘Wow, this kid can fight,’” Roach said. “And then he went over to his managers and [said], ‘We have a new trainer.’ ”

Pacquiao quickly developed into a whirlwind in the ring, at one point winning 15 in a row and becoming a rightful challenger to Mayweather’s mythical pound-for-pound title. It pained Roach that it took five years to make this fight. He says he’s watched more Mayweather film through the years than any opponent ever.

The task isn’t easy. Mayweather is an enormous favorite. The production polled the media on who would win and the results were so overwhelmingly in favor of Mayweather that they decided not to release it at all. Better to maintain the public idea that it’s a toss-up.

Roach doesn’t care. He went 40-13 as a boxer, good but not great, his life spent as the underdog. He’s been relentless in calling out Mayweather, even as Floyd Jr. refuses to fire back. Thursday, Roach went with everything from repeating his concerns that a terrified Mayweather might not show up for the fight to mocking his defensive style by noting, “I have fallen asleep at a couple of his fights before.”

Mostly though he continued to emit supreme confidence that Pacquiao has the skills and the discipline to beat Mayweather. That the game plan is set goes without saying. It’s just a matter of executing it.

Floyd Mayweather Sr., who is training his son, brushes that aside. He’s heard enough from Roach and says this won’t be close. Yes, Freddie knows what he’s doing, Floyd Sr. acknowledges, but it doesn’t matter.

“What I tell Floyd, he can do it,” Mayweather Sr. said. “What he tells Manny, he can’t do.”

That remains to be seen, but for Roach, this opportunity represents the pinnacle, the chance to score a historic victory built through a relentless work ethic that has kept his mind sharp and his body capable of beating back Parkinson’s for 23 years and counting.

“Now, the fight is here,” Roach said. “The trash talking is about over.”

Here comes the biggest night in a remarkable career.