Manny Pacquiao was understandably frustrated after he lost his WBO welterweight title to Jeff Horn in a controversial unanimous decision. Just how upset was he? Apparently so much so that he didn’t speak a single word to his trainer.
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s longtime trainer, told Greg Bishop of Sports Illustrated recently that Pacquiao “wasn’t himself” in the fight against Horn — whether he was robbed with the judges’ decision or not. When Roach approached Pacquiao in the locker room looking for the fighter’s insight about the bout, Pacquiao completely ignored him.
“I was trying to see where his head was at,” Roach explained. “And I could not even get him to say hi to me. I don’t know if he was upset with me or what.”
Not long after the fight, Roach told reporters that he might advise Pacquiao to retire. Roach wonders if the 39-year-old fighter thought his trainer might have wanted to have that conversation in the locker room following the Horn fight, but Roach said he would have never done that.
“Maybe that’s what he thought I was there to tell him,” he said. “But I wouldn’t pick that moment. There were a lot of people. I wouldn’t embarrass anybody like that.”
For whatever reason, Pacquiao gave Roach the silent treatment. It’s obvious from Roach’s reaction that such behavior from Pacquiao is unusual. In fact, Roach hinted that Pacquiao still hasn’t spoken with him more than a week later.
“I really don’t know if he’s mad at me,” the trainer said. “But I can tell you this: I haven’t been paid yet. So who knows?”
Roach was critical of assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez and cut man Miguel Diaz for the way they acted during the Horn fight. If you read what Bob Arum said last week about Roach, it seems like everyone is playing the blame game in the wake of the shocking upset. Perhaps Pacquiao himself is no exception.
