Freddie Roach trash talks Brandon Rios ahead of fight

Freddie Roach has lost all diplomacy when it comes to Brandon Rios.

Roach, who trains Manny Pacquiao, has gone into full trash-talking mode ahead of the fight between Pac-man and Rios on Sunday in Macau (Saturday night in the US). This week Roach ripped Rios’ speed, defense and overall ability.

Rios said he was not a punching bag for Pacquiao, leading to this response from Roach: “He’s a punching bag that swings back.”

Roach then just brought the heat with the insults, saying Rios’ defense is worse than Ricky Hatton’s. Hatton is a British fighter who infamously was destroyed by Pac-Man and Floyd Mayweather.

“I think defense-wise, Ricky (Hatton) has better defense than him. Brandon Rios has never had good defense,” Roach said via Spin.ph.

So you think that trash talk from Roach is bad? It got worse.

“The more I watch him on tapes, the worse he gets,” Roach said of Rios. “He doesn’t do anything spectacular, he’s not special. He’s just a tough guy, he’s just in front of you, he swings back, but he’s too slow for Manny in my opinion.”

Roach is generally fairly respectful of his fighters’ opponents, so this sort of trash talk is unusual for him. But I guess after his fight with Alex Ariza and the rest of Rios’ camp, he means business.