Freddie Roach

Freddie Roach has become the go-to guy for a feel-good story in boxing. He's the former pug of middling ability turned master builder of the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world; the altar boy turned acolyte of...

BEST FIGHTER: Manny Pacquiao Pacquiao opened the decade as a 21-year-old, ex-WBC flyweight champion who owned a 27-2 record and had fought just three times outside his native Philippines. His final pre-2000s...

As strategists go, they don't get much better than Freddie Roach. The mastermind behind 24 world champions, Roach devises winning game plans the way Adrian Peterson scores touchdowns or Ray Allen buries jump shots....

This article appears in the November 16, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach is one of boxing's most respected minds. The three-time BWAA Trainer of the Year owns and operates the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, Calif., where he's passed down fistic...