ON FREDDIE
ROACH, the all-new cinéma-vérité series from
renowned filmmaker and Emmy® nominee Peter Berg, launches its
six-episode season Monday, October 29 at 11pm on HBO / 10pm on HBO HD, with new
episodes airing weekly at the same time. Executive produced by Berg (“Friday
Night Lights”), this HBO Original Programming presentation is a co-production
of Film 44 and Atticus Entertainment.
The unscripted
show focuses on Freddie Roach, 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 the world-famous boxing trainer chronicles his life
and career against the backdrop of Parkinson’s disease, an ailment very likely
linked to his own boxing past.
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 Roach’s first gym, the
Outlaw Boxing Club. He has gone on to train more than 20 world champions,
including Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan, Oscar de la Hoya and Mike Tyson.
Roach 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. On December
6, 2011, he was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
In 2011, the
US 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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Totally looking forward to this. Not only a Freddie Roach fan but also of Director Peter Berg. Love his stuff on Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom. Can't wait to see his approach to this.
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