Oh Boxing. This weekend Manny Pacquiao will square off against Brandon Rios in China in a fight that not many people are that hyped for, which has led to speculation about this incident between Freddie Roach and Rios trainer Robert Garcia being somehow staged or planned, but the reality here is that this is just one of those “sometimes these things happen in Boxing” moments.
Freddie Roach is a well-respected trainer for some of the bigger names in modern Boxing, a list of international names and talent that is hard to deny, but things quickly escalated yesterday at an open workout session when Freddie Roach approached Robert Garcia about them leaving so Manny and his team could move in. Garcia explained he needed 30 more minutes when Roach quickly became heated, as you can see in the video below.
There is obviously something missing here, as there has been talk of Garcia and the team insulting Freddie’s Parkinson’s disease previous to this, which is why Freddie was so immediately upset. What you don’t see in that video is Freddie getting kicked by trainer Alex Ariza. That can be seen here.
Roach gives his side of the ordeal after, but he seems to be filling in a few blanks where there were no blanks. Just a weird, stupid situation, although HBO is already promoting this.