{"id":435518,"date":"2026-01-27T02:27:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435518\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T02:27:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T02:27:06","slug":"freddie-roach-says-one-fighter-would-be-the-greatest-of-all-time-if-he-had-more-discipline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/435518\/","title":{"rendered":"Freddie Roach says one fighter would be the greatest of all time if he had more discipline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach has seen it all in boxing, guiding and witnessing greatness from the corner of the ring following a 53-fight career of his own.<\/p>\n

Roach\u2019s name is synonymous with that of Manny Pacquiao and it\u2019s no wonder \u2013 their work together set records in the sport that seem under no threat of being broken.<\/p>\n

He has, however, cornered plenty of other supreme talents, including Miguel Cotto, Bernard Hopkins, Oscar De La Hoya, Steve Collins and Amir Khan.<\/p>\n

The 65-year-old considers James Toney to be the most naturally talented fighter he has trained, and, in an interview with the Ring Observer<\/a>, went as far as to say \u2018Lights Out\u2019 had what it takes to be the greatest of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of the world\u2019s greatest fighters. He\u2019d just naturally go in there, figure his opponent out and pick them apart. A great boxer.<\/p>\n

\u201c[If he had the discipline of Hopkins and Pacquiao] we\u2019d be calling him the greatest fighter today. He was a great fighter. But if he put his heart into it, with his abilities, he would have been the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toney built his career on technique, timing and defensive control.<\/a> After turning professional in 1988, he won the IBF middleweight title in 1991 with a late stoppage of Michael Nunn, a fight that established his ability to adapt under pressure.<\/p>\n

Following five defences of the belt, he moved up to super-middleweight, where he became IBF champion again by defeating Iran Barkley. Toney\u2019s rivalry with Mike McCallum,<\/a> particularly their first encounter, saw fans witness some of the most technically accomplished boxing of the era.<\/p>\n

In 1994, \u2018Lights Out\u2019 suffered the first defeat of his campaign at the quick hands of Roy Jones Jr. He would, however, later win a world title at cruiserweight before moving up to heavyweight and beating John Ruiz for the WBA belt, but the decision was overturned to a no contest following a failed doping test.<\/p>\n

In 92 bouts, Toney was never stopped and is thus known as one of the greatest defensive fighters of all time, of course paired with extreme durability. Roach, and others, have highlighted a somewhat indifferent attitude that held Toney back, and fans will always wonder what more he could have achieved if this is indeed the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach has seen it all in boxing, guiding and witnessing greatness from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-435518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}