Freddie Roach helping U.S. boxers go for the gold

USA Boxing, trying to pick itself off the canvas, has embraced the wisdom of the sport’s most celebrated trainer.

Freddie Roach has begun his work as a consultant to the downtrodden U.S. boxing program, which will stage its 2012 Olympic-qualifying trials from July 31 to Aug. 6 in Mobile, Ala.

“I’m willing to listen to whatever he has to say,” said Rau’shee Warren, 24, of Cincinnati, a returning Olympian from the 2008 U.S. team, which failed to win a gold medal. “He’s already built champions, so we feel he’s now going to be building gold medalists.”

Roach, 51, was named in May as a consultant to U.S. boxing Coach Joe Zanders of Long Beach. Roach said he won’t work the corners in London at the 2012 Olympics but will be involved in nearly every other step of preparing the fighters.

The task is immense, given that the U.S. heads to London having claimed only three Olympic golds since 1992 (Oscar De La Hoya, David Reid, Andre Ward). The team has decried a flawed international scoring system, and its past intolerance of fighters’ personal coaches led to further disarray.

Enter Roach.

Roach, a 1976 Olympic alternate, has emerged from a lengthy pro boxing career, and the effects of Parkinson’s disease, to become the brilliant trainer directing boxing’s pound-for-pound superstar Manny Pacquiao and world junior-welterweight champion Amir Khan. He also runs his own popular Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood.

During Roach’s preparation with Khan for Saturday’s title-unification bout against Zab Judah, he took a trip to Colorado Springs, Colo., to inspect the U.S. amateur talent.

“Our guys can be more offensive; that’s something we’ll work on,” Roach said.

He hosted Warren, lightweight Raynell Williams and heavyweight Steve Geffrard — the team’s 2010 athlete of the year — for a training session last week.

“He’ll work on my weaknesses, and when you’re working with someone like Freddie, you can go down the list of things to work on to make sure everything is as good as it can be,” said Williams, another returning Olympian. Williams is competing in a stacked U.S. division that includes three-time Golden Gloves champion Erick DeLeon and two-time USA Boxing national champion Jose Ramirez. “You need all the feedback you can get: positive and negative.”

Roach said he would return to work with the boxers and their personal coaches at the Colorado Springs training center in November after Pacquiao’s fight with Juan Manuel Marquez.

“I know I spread myself thin, but I like to work. It keeps me alive,” Roach said. “The more time I can get with the kids, the more we can mentally connect.

“I know there’ll be arguments, but arguments are a good thing — it shows the passion we have for this sport. Everyone has their own methods. I’ve had good success with mine, but my mentors always told me not to be one-sided. … The day I stop learning is the day I die.”

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

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