MACAU MAYHEM Freddie Roach Scuffles With Alex Ariza, Who Kicks Roach

Published

11 years ago

November 20, 2013

UPDATE 3 Wednesday 1:45 ET: In fact, this video clip, at about the 2:55 mark, makes it sound like Roach uses the words “effing Jew emeffer,” which is a more heated version of what he recalled to Osuna.

So, there is much debate raging on social media about what slurs are OK to say, and what aren’t. I think it’s fair to say that referring to someone as a “Mexican” or “Jew” in polite conversation is not impolitic. But when you refer to someone as a “Mexican” or “Jew” during a heated verbal altercation, the context changes, and the intent of the deliverer can be construed differently, and the ability of the tag to hurt becomes potentially pronounced. Using the word “f—-t,” as Ariza seemed to, that word gets slung around carelessly, and often without the user understanding how that usually cutting description of a homosexual person can be interpreted by someone quite negatively, and rightly so. That word-said-aloud doesn’t have much if any place in most or any vocabularies, I dare say, if one doesn’t want to risk offending someone.

A couple other points to maybe be considered. Many get into a tizzy when a public figure uses a verboten or out to be more verboten word in a fit of pique. Conternation ensues, accusations are raised, self righteous outcries result. What if that same heated reaction were to be summoned at societal ills that go far beyond mere hurting with words? Instances of genocide and fomenting genocide like this occur daily and many if not most, including myself, usually turn a bling eye. And how many of us getting all self righteously bent out of shape use the odd slur every now and again. Let ye without sin…Hey, I’m not calling for anyone to be let off the hook, but maybe speaking to perspective here. I think we can at least add this point of view into the conversation, which, by the way, is a useful one to have. Thank the heavens for the Twitter and YouTube; how else are the masses going to be introduced to the semi-destructive power of language used flippantly?

UPDATE 2 Wednesday 12 noon ET: I hadn’t heard anyone referring to anyone as a “Jew” or making any sort of remark that could be construed as anti-Semitic, as has been alleged, so I put it out to Twitter. Thanks to Twitter Follower “Marc” I was pointed to an interview of Freddie Roach, post-fracas, by ESPN’s Bernard Osuna. Roach gives his account of the gym scrap, which he says started because Team Rios overstayed their time in the gym, and, in fact, cops to referring to videographer Elie Seckback, who has a website and is a virtually continuous presence in Brandon Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia’s CA gym by his faith, the Jewish faith.

“I said something about ‘the Jewish kid’ because that’s all I know him as,” Roach explained, saying that Seckbach had previously been to his Wild Card Gym, and had talked about his faith. “I don’t know your name, I just know you as ‘the Jewish kid,’ Roach said he told Seckbach, when recounting what he said after Seckbach called him out for being “racist.” In fact, this video clip, at about the 2:55 mark, makes it sound like Roach uses the words “effing Jew emeffer,” which is a more heated version of what he recalled to Osuna.

(And by the way, there is much debate raging on social media about what slurs are OK to say, and what aren’t. I think it’s fair to say that referring to someone as a “Mexican” or “Jew” in polite conversation is not impolitic. But when you refer to someone as a “Mexican” or “Jew” during a heated verbal altercation, the context changes, and the intent of the deliverer can be construed differently, and the ability of the tag to hurt becomes potentially pronounced. Using the word “f—-t,” as Ariza seemed to, that word gets slung around carelessly, and often without the user understanding how that cutting description of a homosexual person can be interpreted by someone quite negatively, and rightly so. That word-said-aloud doesn’t have much if any place in most or any vocabularies, I dare say, if one doesn’t want to risk offending someone.)

Roach became visibly emotional when telling Osuna that that he talked to his girlfriend after the fracas, and she was upset. “There’s chaos, I don’t need Manny coming into it,” he said. “But everything’s fine, I can’t wait to get this fight going, they’re digging a hole, but that’s OK.”

Roach was asked about pressing charges, and he said Top Rank’s Brad Jacobs advised him that could endanger the fight, and he won’t go that route, because that’s not his style anyway. He said he was miffed because Ariza “suckered” him and he wished he could have retaliated, and it is best that Ariza “ran.” He didn’t seem to care for Ariza making light of his Parkinson’s symptoms but made light of it when telling Osuna that he suggested Rios make Parkinson’s cracks instead, because he is more adept at it than Ariza is.

Also, check out this Boxing Channel video in which Roach and Pacquiao discusses the fracas. Roach in this video with Marcos Villegas said the fracas hasn’t affacted Pacquiao and, in fact, they chuckled about it. Roach also said he thinks he will see a nasty Pacman, one who craves a KO. “Manny is as good as I’ve ever seen him,” the trainer said. Manny said he’s handling all stresses well, including the fracas, and the typhoon, and advisor Michael Koncz’ health scare.

Still, Roach isn’t exiting this situation smelling all rosy. People are taking sides on this deal, and being quite vehement about it, too.

UPDATE 1 Late, Late Tuesday Night: Another version of the video, shot and posted by Elie Seckbach, is of better quality. Seckbach is a regular at Robert Garcia’s gym and is seen by most as being a virtual member of Team Rios, basically. In this version, you can see Roach saying the gym is his, and Garcia standing his ground. Roach refers to Garcia as a “piece of s–t” and Garcia says he’s not that, and holds his cool. “Throw me out, throw me out, make me leave,” yells Roach, as some of Garcia’s crew hurks insults at him and tells him to scram. You can hear someone making animalistic noises, as if perhaps they are trying to make light of Roach’s speech, compromised by his Parkinson’s. Soon after, Ariza delivers a kick at Roach, and at least two people step between him and Roach. Then, Roach addresses Rios assistant trainer Donald Leary (seen above cocking his fist, face contorted in fury, in Chris Farina-Top Rank photo) who is telling him to get out, and calls him, as I heard it, a “Mexican emeffer,” which Garcia and some others react to, declaring that Roach has made an ethnic slur. Ariza then uses a derogatory word beginning with the letter F in the direction of a Roach cohort, a version of a word which got Alec Baldwin in hot water while he was beefing with a paparazzo last week.

Garcia then says he’s always respected Roach but not now. “Now, it’s personal,” he yells at Roach, who is being hustled towards an exit. Then and chuckles Garcia smiles while Ariza continues to yell at Roach, challenges him to a fight, and mocks his speech. “Uh uh uh uh sp-sp-spit it out,” Ariza says.

In a post-beef assessment, in a SecondsOut YouTube, Ariza said Freddie’s move was “juvenile,” and that he thinks Roach wanted to “kick something off.” He said he felt Roach was being aggressive toward him. “He was going to hit Robert,” Ariza said, and cocked his fist at him, and that’s why he kicked him. He didn’t regret the kick, he said.

It appears that Rios, bless him, never lost his step while on the elliptical glider. Smartest guy in the room…

——————————————————————————————————————————

The principals aren’t supposed to face off till Sunday (Saturday in the US) Macao, but some undercard action got cooking today, when Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach and ex right-hand man Alex Ariza got into a scuffle in the gym at the hotel, during changeover time.

Word is Roach entered the gym, and wanted Garcia and Rios and company to exit, as he believed their allotted time was up. Words were exchanged. Ariza, formerly Roach’s go to guy while he was Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach, who was booted by Roach for overstepping his boundaries, yelled at Roach. Pacquiao and Rios are not in the frame at any point, for the record.

“Roach, get the eff out of here,” someone is heard to yell in this YouTube video off Rappler.com. “This isn’t the Wild Card, b—h,” is also hurled at Roach. “You don’t run this effin place,” Freddie is told. The then advanced toward Ariza, while insults are being hurled at him, and Ariza throws a front kick with his right leg at the 53-year-old Roach. A security guard attempts to intercede, and more jawing ensues. Ariza, with someone standing in front of him, blocking the route to Roach, is aggressive and seems to want to up the ante.

Robert Garcia is seen yapping, but basically doesn’t move from his spot, sitting on the ring apron. One can hear a voice that seems to be Roach calling for Ariza to be arrested, for assaulting him. The audio is off track, so it is hard to decipher exactly who is saying what. A reference to someone using ethnic epithets is made, but again, it is unclear where that accusation comes from.

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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Published

16 hours ago

May 4, 2025

David A. Avila

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Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.

Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.

“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.

Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.

After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.

Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.

One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”

Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.

“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”

Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.

A real fight was happening.

Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.

Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.

In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.

“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”

Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.

In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.

“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”

Espinoza Wins

WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.

“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.

Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.

Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.

It was Espinoza’s third title defense.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

Published

19 hours ago

May 4, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.

The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.

The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.

Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.

Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.

A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.

In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.

Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.

Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.

In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.

Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.

Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Canelo Alvarez Upends Dancing Machine William Scull in Saudi Arabia

Published

2 days ago

May 3, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who has acquired a new nickname – “The Face of Boxing” – is accustomed to fighting on Cinco De Mayo weekend, but this year was different. For the first time, Canelo was fighting outside the continent of North America and entering the ring at an awkward hour. His match with William Scull started at 6:30 on a Sunday morning in Riyadh.

In the opposite corner was 32-year-old William Scull, an undefeated (23-0) Cuban by way of Germany, whose performance was better suited to “Dancing With the Stars” than to a world title fight. Constantly bouncing from side to side but rarely letting his hands go, Scull frustrated Canelo who found it near-impossible to corner him, but one can’t win a fight solely on defense and the Mexican superstar was returned the rightful winner in a bout that was a fitting cap to a desultory two days of Saudi-promoted prizefighting. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 119-109. In winning, Canelo became a fully unified super middleweight champion twice over.

Terence Crawford was in attendance and HE Turki Alalshikh made it official: Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will meet in the Fight of the Century (Alalshikh’s words) on Sept. 12 in Las Vegas at the home of the city’s NFL team, the Raiders. For whatever it’s worth, each of Canelo’s last seven fights has gone the full 12 rounds.

Semi-wind-up

In a match between the WBC world cruiserweight title-holder and the WBC world cruiserweight “champion in recess” (don’t ask), the former, Badou Jack, brought some clarity to the diadem by winning a narrow decision over Noel Mikaelian. One of the judges had it a draw (114-114), but the others gave the fight to “Jack the Ripper” by 115-113 scores.

A devout Muslim who is now a full-time resident of Saudi Arabia, the Sweden-born Jack, a three-division title-holder, had the crowd in his corner. Now 41 years old, he advanced his record to 29-3-3 (17). It was the first pro loss for Mikaelian (27-1), a Florida-based Armenian who was subbing for Ryan Rozicki.

The distracted CompuBox operator credited Mikaelian with throwing 300 more punches but there was no controversy.

Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia, a former junior middleweight title-holder, avenged his shocking loss to Bruno Sarace with a unanimous 12-round decision in their rematch. This was Munguia’s first fight with Eddy Reynoso in his corner. The scores were 117-111 and 116-112 twice.

Surace’s one-punch knockout of Munguia in mid-December in Tijuana was the runaway pick for the 2024 Upset of the Year. Heading in, Munguia was 44-1 with his lone defeat coming at the hands of Canelo Alvarez. Munguia had won every round against Surace before the roof fell in on him.

Surace won a few rounds tonight, but Munguia was the busier fighter and landed the cleaner shots. It was the first pro loss for Surace (26-1-2) and ended his 23-fight winning streak. The Frenchman hails for Marseilles.

Heavyweights

In a 10-round heavyweight match fought at a glacial pace, Martin Bakole (21-2-1) and Efe Ajagba (20-1-1) fought to a draw. One of the judges favored Ajagba 96-94 but he was outvoted by his cohorts who each had it 95-95.

Bakole, a 7/2 favorite, came in at 299 pounds, 15 more than he carried in his signature win over Jared Anderson, and looked sluggish. He was never able to effectively close off the ring against the elusive Ajagba who fought off his back foot and failed to build on his early lead.

The fight between the Scotch-Congolese campaigner Bakole and his Nigerian-American foe was informally contested for the heavyweight championship of Africa. That “title” remains vacant.

In a 6-rounder, heavy-handed Cuban light heavyweight Brayon Leon, a stablemate of Canelo Alvarez, was extended the distance for the first time while advancing his record to 7-0 at the expense of Mexico’s Aaron Roche (11-4-1). Leon knocked Roche to the canvas in the fourth round with a right-left combination, but the Mexican stayed the course while eating a lot of hard punches.

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry Promotions

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