Fortune done working with Roach

MANILA, Philippines — Manny Pacquiao’s long-time strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune swears he’ll never set foot on the so-called hallowed grounds of the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles after Freddie Roach blamed him for the Filipino icon’s cramps during the recent fight against WBA welterweight super champion Yordenis Ugas in Las Vegas.

“Mark my words, I’ll never work with Freddie again,” said Fortune in a no-holds-barred chat yesterday from his L.A. home. “He accused me for Manny’s loss to cover up his own inadequacies and didn’t do it to my face. Freddie made stupid statements, not even factual, about Manny running the hills at Griffith Park six days a week. He won’t tell it to my face and I think that’s being a coward. It’s pathetic. If I had something to say about Freddie, I’ll tell it to him straight, not through somebody else.”

Fortune said he was surprised that physiotherapist Dr. Sean Hampton worked on Pacquiao’s legs in the dressing room 30 minutes before the fight. “I think Freddie brought him in a week or a few weeks before,” he said. “I don’t know if he’s ever worked with a fighter or an elite athlete before. All I know is you don’t touch a fighter 30 minutes before a fight, certainly not to massage his legs.  You want a fighter like a cat on a hot tin roof, not with loose legs. That’s a perfect formula to get cramps right away and it’s exactly what happened.”

Before the Friday weigh-in, Pacquiao took Wednesday off then ran sprints the next day and even went on a treadmill for about 20 minutes on the day of the weigh-in. “You do all that to drop weight so you can eat before the weigh-in,” he said. “Manny broke out to do sprints on Thursday and maybe he shouldn’t have but he likes to win and he probably felt it would be good to do it. He came in at 146 at the weigh-in. It’s hard to say why cramps set in. Manny just had a bad night, it happens to the best of champions, especially with the ring rust and two years of inactivity.”

Fortune wasn’t in Pacquiao’s corner for the fight. Roach, Buboy Fernandez and cutman Mike Rodriguez were. But Fortune said there was trouble in the corner. “I couldn’t understand why Mike wasn’t in the middle during the timeouts because Manny had a cut over his eye and a cut on his cheek,” he said. “Freddie and Buboy were talking over each other so it got messy.” Roach blamed Fernandez for talking so loudly that Pacquiao couldn’t hear his instructions. Fernandez said he should’ve been allowed to be in the middle more often to attend to Pacquiao’s legs but came in only once. Roach and Fernandez didn’t seem to be on the same page.

Fortune said it’s up to Pacquiao whether to fight once more or not. “Personally, I don’t want Manny to retire with a loss,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind a rematch with Ugas. I think Manny should be able to beat him with no more ring rust. Let’s face it, if Manny weren’t in condition, he wouldn’t have lasted 12 rounds even with cramps. It was just a bad night. I wouldn’t mind working with Buboy whom I love and Marvin (Somodio) who’s decent and respectful. Buboy and I worked with Manny for the (Lucas) Matthyssee fight and Manny scored a knockout. It was a great camp without Freddie. I’m hoping we can do that again.”