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| Manny Pacquiao, right, listens to his trainer Freddie Roach, left, during a news conference Wednesday. AP |
DALLAS – Antonio Margarito tried to wash his hands Wednesday after a video of him and his training partner mocking Freddie Roach, who has Parkinson’s disease, appeared on the Internet.
“He was making no fun of it (Roach’s Parkinson’s),” said Top Rank’s Ricardo Jimenez as he stood beside Margarito and served as translator for the 32-year-old fighter who faced the media.
In the short video, taken a few weeks back in Oxnard, Margarito and Brandon Rios were shown, apparently or otherwise, mocking Roach who shakes uncontrollably at times because of the disease.
“When I was shaking my hand I was saying I’m really scared of Manny Pacquiao. And people misunderstood that. It was a misunderstanding. I respect him as a great trainer,” said Margarito.
The video was all over the different boxing websites, and Roach said he didn’t like what he saw.
“I didn’t like it,” he said during the final press conference for Saturday’s big fight.
“I had trouble sleeping last night. I want to fight all those guys myself, but I’m too old. I’ll never talk to any of those guys again,” he was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying.
“This shows who those guys are. What I have is something boxers attain when they get hit a lot, like Margarito does. I hope he doesn’t get this,” said Roach, who fought for nearly a decade.
Margarito was asked why it had come to a point when both camps appeared to be disliking each other when everything started out smoothly.
“We were friendly (at the start) but they were saying a lot of stuff about ours, too,” said Margarito, mocked by Roach himself many days ago when he climbed the ring during training wearing armored gloves.
It was obviously in reference to Margarito’s illegal handwraps for the Shane Mosley fight in 2009, the ugly incident that led to a one-year suspension for the native of Tijuana.
“It’s normal. It’s been a long promotion and we’re bouncing back and forth but it’s nothing. It’s a sport and we’re gonna fight on Saturday, and then move on,” he said.
His chief trainer, Robert Garcia, apologized to Roach during the press conference, but the legendary trainer never seemed to listen.
“There’s one thing I want to clear up before it gets bitter. Two of my fighters made fun of Freddie Roach but it has nothing to do with Freddie’s disease,” said Garcia, “because that I wouldn’t allow in my gym.”
“I talked to Brandon Rios this morning and told him everybody’s thinking that we’re laughing at people with the disease, and he said he didn’t know Freddie has it,” he added.
Again, Roach isn’t buying.
“It is unreal that they said they didn’t know I have Parkinson’s. Everyone knows I have Parkinson’s,” he said.
“I won’t speak to him ever in my life.”
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