ARLINGTON, Texas — Freddie Roach’s first instinct when he heard about Antonio Margarito and his camp mocking his disease was to take things into his own hands, because that’s what fighters do.
Then he remembered that he’s not a fighter anymore, and his hands don’t always work the way they used to.
“It’s not easy to live with this every day,” said Roach, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease. “We have to deal with it. They don’t.”
Roach, who trains Manny Pacquiao, said Thursday he was ready to move on after getting apologies from Margarito’s camp for a training camp video that appeared to be mocking the trembling of his hands. Margarito came into the fight press room to offer his apology, just two days before he and Pacquiao get in the ring at Cowboys Stadium.
“I would never make fun of Freddie Roach or anyone with that disease,” Margarito said.
A day after the video surfaced, Roach tried to turn his attention back toward the fight, where Pacquiao will move up in weight to challenge Margarito at 150 pounds for an unprecedented eighth title. But he was still clearly upset for himself and others who have the disease.
“It affects a lot more people than me,” Roach said. “A lot of people have Parkinson’s.”
Roach said he has Parkinson’s and Parkinson’s Syndrome, which can be caused by repeated blows to the head. He was a journeyman lightweight in the 1980s, compiling a record of 40-13 while fighting 406 often brutal rounds.
The effects of the Parkinson’s are apparent in his trembling hands and sometimes slurred speech.
“I can’t control my tremors as much as I used to,” the 50-year-old said. “Before I could by using my brain to stop them. I can’t do that anymore.”
