Roach wages fight against Parkinson’s thru boxing

NEW YORK – Freddie Roach’s tilted neck and the slight tremor of his hands were obvious to the onlookers at Mendez Gym, as the boxing trainer walked through the ropes and into the center of the ring,

But as the 56-year-old former boxer picked up his pink and blue mitts and started pad work with Chinese Olympian Zou Shiming, Roach’s Parkinson’s symptoms came to a noticeable halt.

“Again, again, again,” Roach instructed Zou, catching every punch the 35-year-old boxer threw his way.

In his 24-hour-a-day fight against Parkinson’s, boxing is his comfort zone, Roach says. It was Muhammad Ali’s too.

Ali died Friday at age 74 in Arizona following a long battle with Parkinson’s – a disease Roach has been living with since he was 27. The trainer – famous for his work with Manny Pacquiao – has no plans to slow down. He’s preparing Zou, who won two Olympic golds and a bronze, for his US debut Saturday night on the undercard of the Roman Martinez-Vasyl Lomachenko fight on HBO.

About 10 to 15 years ago, Roach said Ali and his daughter visited Roach’s gym, Wild Card Boxing Club in Los Angeles, completely unannounced. The two men discussed boxing and the medical treatment they were taking to cut down the symptoms of Parkinson’s.