Roach sets aside personal grudge against Margarito's camp

Let bygones be bygones. Freddie Roach is setting aside his personal grudge against trainer Robert Garcia and boxers Antonio Margarito and Brandon Rios to concentrate on Saturday’s (Sunday in Manila) fight between Manny Pacquiao and his Mexican foe for the junior middleweight championship version of the World Boxing Council (WBC). Margarito, Garcia and the upcoming Rios, who is fighting in the undercard of the big boxing event at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, had earlier extended their apologies to Roach, whose Parkinson’s disease was the subject of their mockery caught in a video posted on the Internet by FanHouse.com. a few weeks ago. “I was mad, but now I am not," admitted Roach, who was personally reached by Garcia over the phone to say his piece on the controversy. “Robert seemed to be really sincere in what he said to me this morning on the phone, so I accepted his apology." Margarito and Rios were both repentant during the undercard press conference Thursday at the Gaylord Texan Hotel here, where the 32-year-old Mexican was not really supposed to be part of the proceedings. “I want you to know I would never make fun of Freddie Roach or anyone with that disease," said Pacquiao’s opponent, stressing even someone in his family has Parkinson’s disease. “If he really wants an apology, I have no problem with that because I know I’m not laughing at his disease. I can look him straight in the eyes and tell him….`I’m not laughing at you. I respect you.’" Added Rios, “I take responsibility for what I did. I’m man about it. It was wrong and I’m sorry." The gentleman that he is, Roach said he’s putting the incident behind him now, although admitting he didn’t sleep well the night before and had to double his medicine intake for his disease. “I would shake his (Margarito’s) hand to end this. I think they realize what they did was maybe a little bit too much, they went overboard," he added. “Let’s just move on with the fight now," said Roach, who said he verbally gave Garcia the best of luck for this weekend’s bout. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV