tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with trainer freddie roach. he is the subject of a new series on hbo called "on freddie roach." he now suffers from parkinson's but continues to train some of the biggest names including manny pacquiao. we're glad you have joined us. freddie roach and peter berg coming up right now. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

tavis: freddie roach has been a force in boxing for many years now. he has served as a trainer for many champions including manny pacquiao. he has teamed up for a new series called "on freddie roach ." here are some scenes. >> boxing was part of life. somewhere along the way, eddie started to like the sport. >> i was 27 years old and found something i was better at than boxing. when that day came, everything changed. i do not think about

parkinson's. i do my day day-by-day and live through it. and doing what i love and i love what i do. i treat everyone with respect and everyone treats me with respect. that is why i have the most successful boxing in the world. i would not trade my life for anybody. tavis: less talk about the clients first and then we will talk about you. julio looked good the other night. >> the best he has looked since the other five. tavis: i thought he looked amazing. with regard to manny, he got robbed. that is my sense. i am not the trainer.

what is your sense? >> i am happy with his performance. he fought a good fight. i think there should be an investigation somehow about how these judges came up with this course. even the judge that gave it to us by a two grounds, i had it 11-1. that is part of life and manny is doing well. he handles it better than most. he says that is part of life. tavis: he was a class act after he lost the fight. but what is your sense, i try to be open-minded, i think he got robbed but there is nothing else in life that people cannot see from disparate points of view. there is nothing we look at that

we have to see the same way even when the facts are on the table. but how is it that those referees could see this so differently than the rest of us? >> the criteria of boxing is scoring points by landing punches. defense is great but it does not win fights. manny outgunned bradley by a large margin. the punches were on our side. some people say that some of them liked everything and sound like the defense, some like the offense, those judges that voted for the other guy, they are in their 70's. they are older men.

i thought the retirement age was 65. tavis: may be inside the ring. not outside. >> what were they watching? from one side of the ring to the other, does it change that much? i have been in boxing a long time and the answer is no. it does not. clearly pacquiao won the fight and we have to live with it. life goes on and we will take it like man. manny told me the next time i will not amount. that is the first time he has predicted a fight, ever. tavis: as soon as the fight was over everybody had something to say but there are people who feel there had been a knockout, you do not have this debate. >> es.

-- yes. i love fights that and in a knockout because there are no questions asked. even chaz was down by two main points on his scorecard, which i thought the fight was close. but i thought we had the edge. if you beat it in the judge's hands you always have controversy. tavis: if you knock them out there is no controversy. peter, freddie roach shows up and you get him in a room and you start talking about the game. it raises the question, how has used -- how have you got about taking this inside boxing stuff and turning it into a series that everybody seems to get into? not that women cannot get into boxing. i see women in the gym every day.

but how do you open up the humanity of freddie roach so that people to and in even if they are not fans of boxing? >> the key to opening it up was to try to focus primarily on this human being right here. try to bring up as many facets of his life and personality and the dynamics he has. he is an eclectic and fascinating person and he has a crew around him. we knew we would not be able to divorce them from the sport. but we found interesting and a way of separating us was to focus on a complex and open human being and let that be the entry point. i have enjoyed having women say, i do not climb -- care about boxing. but there is something about this guy that is unique. that is what we have chosen to

focus on. tavis: what you mean about the shakespearean crude? >> have you ever been to the wild card boxing? one of the things that is unique about freddy and i have known him a long time, going back to the days when he was living in hollywood teaching anybody how to throw a coke, -- a hook, he treats everybody the same. there is no difference between manny pacquiao and a guy who might frustrate freddie but he is a welcome part of that world. he put this unique group of people around him and everyone gets treated with respect as long as they treat him with respect. as a result, for anyone who has gone into that jim and had a

chance to experience that dynamic, it is fine -- fascinating and very unique. at any given moment there are four guys on the verge of getting fired, three women about to demolish them for some emotional and justice and his mom are running rule over the situation. tavis: is that a fair description of your life? are you that complex? >> i did not think so until the show came out. my life was interesting, being in a boxing gym you have the biggest characters in the world. there are so many stories and so much going on. how can you spend 12 hours a day in the gym? i say it is fun, it is great.

you never know what is going to happen. there is something different every day. they just love being there. it is funny because when i go away and do training, the gym is not as busy but then somehow they know when i am coming back because then it is full. tavis: they watch hbo. that is how they know. seeing whatat you, is great about the sport and make their own judgments about what is not great about this sport. when people look at this and say no matter how well you train anybody in your stable, this is the shakes you have right now of why boxing is such a violent sport and you should have gotten out sooner.

>> i should have probably but it was my choice. i love we live in a country where we have freedom of choice. mike trainer told me to retire and i told him i was not ready. i have told several people to retire over the years and six of them told me where to go and one retired. it is an addicting game and hard to give up. we were having problems at all contact events now. hockey, football, traumas is not the greatest thing that the first time i see signs of then slowing down or the coronation is off a little bit, i see these signs because i have gone through them. i will tell them to retire.

hopefully they will take my advice. but they will only retire when they are ready to do so. tavis: 6 of them screw you come the only one does. for those six, even though you know they should get out, as a trainer, what to do you do? to keep training them? >> i cannot. it would not be right. no, it would be wrong. tavis: so they just leave? >> one of my best friends, james. i just told him it was time to retire. every time i see him he says why won't you train me. i say i want to be your friend. if i took that job, i could not be friends with him. it would not work. tavis: this story is so

antithetic a,o not when you think when you think boxing. people do not care about what condition you are in. the who tells somebody to get out of the game and even though there is money made, i am not going to do it. >> there is not many. that is part of unique and interesting. here is a guy, boxing has taken a toll on him today. if he had gotten out, there would be a different story. yet he understands that better than anyone who is able to communicate with fighters with a level of honesty with no other level of honesty. he understand what works for the sport and speaks honestly about it. despite it all can sit here and tell you he does not have any regrets. he does not feel sorry for himself. he loves the sport of boxing.

it speaks to the confusion we have over contact sports, that we are aware of the damages the sports are doing to our brains and what concussions mean and what brain injuries are. we are still watching football and boxing. we are letting our kids play the sport. freddie is an interesting in to these discussions. tavis: what is your sense of why we are addicted to it? >> goes back to a primal, gladiator instinct that we love watching human beings compete and we love watching them dominate each other physically. it is in our dna. we are competitive animals. boxing speaks to that. ice hockey speaks to that. soccer speaks to that. we are seeing more concussions in girls' soccer than in football. i think it speaks to ignorance,

adults do not want to take the time to how we are teaching our kids to fight. they have somebody like freddie who can say you should stop. that is what makes him special. if more adults would start assume responsibility over how young children are taught, taught to tackle, taught to check, and we are sensitive to these kinds of injuries. i think the sport would start getting safer. tavis: let me ask a hollywood question which is how you fill in this series. i mean in terms of a story. there are so many reality tv shows. what you think is the reality is set up. they have meetings about this story, you are going to walk in and say this.

how is this different? >> honestly, it is like your show. none of us have ever met. producers will come in and coach you, tavis is going to ask about this and then you will laugh about this and he is going to change the subject to that. we all play along. if you go on jay leno, of course these guys can go on a script, but nobody has said a word. sitting in the room talking. that was our approach on freddie roach. there is a style called cinme- verite. basically, it is what i said to him we are going to come in and not say anything. we are going to be in your apartment at 5:30.

we'll have them in your house at 5:20. we need a keeper. he is like, really? we follow him and allow it to happen. if he gets in a fight with his girlfriend, he gets in a fight. if his brother has a stroke, he has a stroke. manny -- if manny wins, he wins. >> that is the best part of the show. i was never asked to do anything. i am just myself. i ignore the cameras. i actually miss the crew a little bit because when i had trivia questions, i would usually just ask the air and get an answer. [laughter] tavis: the cool thing about this series, as peter said, israel and authentic. it is you doing what's your --

it is real and authentic. it is you doing what it is you do. you have to be willing to be open. why would you do that? >> people wanted to see my life. they thought it was interesting. i was open to it because i have a great life and that was used to having cameras are around me. i go about my day. i remember somebody said i never saw the dark side of view. what are you talking about? when you were yelling at marie. i said when you get mad, what do you do? if something goes wrong, i want it fixed. she is the closest one to me so she usually gets said. i expected to get resolved if there is a problem.

i completely forgot they were even with me. i was myself and they wanted to see my life and what i do every day and i think i am a boring person and they thought i was interesting. tavis: how you interact with people in the gym who are just paying the monthly membership and are working to get in good shape. they are not trying to be boxers. everyday people. >> if i have time, i help them out. i assign trainers to different personalities. i have 12 traders who work for me now. when my professionals are in the gym, that is when i go to work. i do not have time for anyone else. tavis: you have discussed this

before, and i want to get your take on it and peter's take on it, freddie is going to shake a little bit here and there in the conversation. he puts these the pads on and it goes away. i do not get it. >> that is my comfort zone. about eight years ago a guy named mohammad ali knocked on my door and asked if i could work out. yes, of course. i had him in my daughter in my gym. as soon as he started hitting the back, his tremors went away. as soon as he stopped, they came back. it was the greatest day we ever had. i started to cause some people and tell them, guess who is in my jim? but i said, whoever shows up is going to enjoy this.

it is going to be natural. it was probably the greatest day of a wild card's life. he stayed for four hours. it was a great thing. for him, once i get into the ring, home is my comfort zone. i do not shake. i told my mother, i said, when i am a charity case and people pacify me, will you tell me? she says the course. she keeps an eye on me. she lives next door to me. she told me at the other day i am getting fed. tavis: what is it like when you are watching this? >> the first time i noticed i thought of, remember "butch

cassidy and the sundance kid"? he could not take anything and he asked the guy, he said can i move? i am better when i moved. once he started moving he could hit anything. i remember thinking about that as a kid. i used to talk about that with my dad. he would say you have to find your comfort zone. you have to find a way of distracting yourself. if you feel nervous, which obviously he suffers from a physical situation. but i have seen him when he gets into his comfort zone, it almost feels like he is tricking his brain into not being able to take control. he is taking control over his mind and body by doing something that he loves. it is remarkable. he is lightning quick. you want to sometimes get in the

ring and say, dude, why hit freddie? you see flashes of anger in his eyes. sometimes i do think he is going to hit amir back. but he snaps out of it. i think it is like behavior psychology. you can go to a shrink and talk about the means that your mom and dad did to you or you can get up and go do something. go read a book cargo for a run and behave. i think it is an example of how behaving can change the way you are living. tavis: before i let you go, i know they were after you to be the coach and you cannot do that with the other stuff you have going on. we picked up on that from watching this series. what is going to happen to our team?

>> we have some talent and some good kids who want to work hard. i was in colorado springs for a month and we have some talented kids. we have some potential medal winners. there are going to be a couple of training camps. going to work to get the atmosphere. tavis: let me know when they are coming. >> i will. that is one of the things about my gym, when you are working with world champions, they rubbed off on people. that is why back in the 1950's you had so many great role models. i do not think we have so many nowadays. but i am full of them right now. four world champions that work

out there. it sets the pace for everyone else. tavis: i have 20 seconds, but i do not want to be cussed out by not asking, will the manny pacquiao-may weather fight ever happened? >> i am not sure. tavis: i will take that. freddie roach and peter berg have teamed up for a series on hbo called "on freddie roach." that is our show for tonight. until next time, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with jonathan demme on his new project on rock

icon the young. >> every community has a martin luther king boulevard. it's the cornerstone we all know. it's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where walmart stands together with your community to make every day better. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs. >> be more. pbs.