There was something on the piece you did on Viloria that caught my attention before the fight, the part where Roach said that he wasn't particularly happy with the counterpunching style that Viloria was trying to work on in the gym. Now I think a fighter to be one of the great ones has to have a little of everything in his game, so I don't understand how Roach being one of the more respected trainers in the game would not want that for one of his younger fighters. I also think that when a fighter and their trainer/coach are not the same page that's a recipe for disaster and that's what I think happened in his fight with Nino. – J-Bird.

It was Steve Kim who wrote the advance feature on Viloria before the kid fought last Thursday, but I’m happy to credit for his work.

I don’t think Roach was saying that he didn’t want Viloria to counter punch at all during his fights; I believe the trainer’s point was that it’s not in Viloria’s best interest to adopt a counter-punching style as his main game. Viloria is at his best when he presses the issue in a fight and creates offensive opportunities (the way he did in his title winning effort). He’s young, he’s fast, he’s strong and he can punch. Why would he want to lay back and counterpunch like an aging veteran? Only Viloria can answer that question and only the fighter can decide what he wants to do (and not do) during a fight. I don’t place any blame on Roach for Viloria’s loss. Freddie can’t go out there and fight for his boxers (but I tell you what, if Roach were able to do the fighting he sure as hell wouldn’t be waiting around for the other guy to get off, he would be in that ass from the opening bell).



Could be why Viloria lost! Taken from Doug Fischer's mailbag...here's the link brothers......http://www.maxboxing.com/Fischer/fischer081406.asp