HBO and filmmaker Peter Berg will team up for the innovative new primetime series On Freddie Roach, directed and executive produced by Emmy nominee Berg (Friday Night Lights). Presented by HBO and a co-production of Film 44 and Atticus Entertainment, the cinéma-vérité series focuses on Freddie Roach, the world-famous boxing trainer who owns and operates the famed Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, where he has produced a host of world champions.

This intensely personal look at Roach chronicles his life and career against the backdrop of Parkinson’s disease, an ailment very likely linked to his own boxing past. On Freddie Roach debuts Friday, January 20, exclusively on HBO, with other new episodes debuting the subsequent five Fridays at the same time. All episodes will also be available on HBO On Demand and HBO GO.

“We are truly excited to partner with Peter Berg on this exceptional production,” says Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming. “Freddie Roach is an extraordinary person and a fascinating personality.”

“HBO’s enthusiasm in supporting a less-conventional, vérité style of storytelling is why they continue to create original and truly innovative programming,” says Peter Berg. “It’s why they are the best and we are very excited to be working with them.

A native of Dedham, Mass., Freddie Roach has an extensive amateur boxing background. He fought as a professional under the tutelage of legendary Hall of Fame trainer Eddie Futch, ending his professional boxing career in 1987 with a record of 41 wins and 13 losses. Upon retiring, Roach became Futch’s apprentice.

In 1992, Mickey Rourke financed his first gym, the Outlaw Boxing Club. Roach has trained more than 20 world champions, including Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan, Oscar de la Hoya and Mike Tyson. He has been honored five times as Trainer of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America and has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced a unique partnership with Roach in an effort to ensure that America’s top amateur fighters have access to the finest training in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. This partnership will create a program allowing up to ten Olympic hopefuls to train at the Wild Card Gym, which has become synonymous with world-class performance.

The 51-year-old bachelor lives next door to his mother, just a few miles from Wild Card.

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Boxing has taken a back seat to every ones favorite action or violent sport and I’m not sad about it at all. Maybe I should be, considering the many great heroic acts I’ve seen in the ring…then again this dysfunctional sport lacks what the MMA now has in abundance; excitement and star power.

The average sports fan can name more MMA fighters than they can name heavyweights at this point.  A new noticeable trend is the amount of tough guys or guys who believe in their toughness who are now trying their hand in the octagon and not the ring.  These gladiators have become the new faces of toughness, skill and dedication… deservingly so.

Think about it, these guys are insane but unlike the boxers of today, they welcome and fight all challengers.

So where does this leave boxing?  What will become of the sport of our fathers and grandfathers? The honest answer is simple, who knows.  One thing I do know is that something can be done to help out this dying sport.

Boxing will not return to the level it once was mainly because there are too many belts to be had and too few fighters willing to fight for them. But the excitement can return once again, even if only for one night.

This brings me to Floyd Mayweather and the man whom I believe to be the best fighter in the world, Manny Pacquiao…outside of the octagon of course; but will this fight ever happen?

I hope so for the sake of boxing and for the sake of Floyd’s pilling lawsuits.

I’ve always thought that Floyd was afraid of taking this fight, not necessarily because he fears the smaller Pacquiao.  Floyd instead fears losing that big -0 in his record, but if he were to retire without fighting the best fighter of his generation, what would that big fat zero really mean.  Well to me, it wouldn’t mean as much and his legacy would not be tarnished but simply diminished…fairly or unfairly, that would be the mindset of many boxing fans.

Pacquiao is scheduled to fight Juan Manuel Marquez in November, while Floyd is scheduled to fight Victor Ortiz in September.

Is this a tune up so to speak? Is pretty boy Floyd preparing himself to fight the long awaited fight against Manny?  It needs to happen because there is no one else to fight.  How many more fights will we have to endure with lesser and older opponents who are only there for another pay check.

As a boxing fan I’ve had enough, MMA has come calling and it may be time to put boxing aside and answer that call.

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