Landry Major Photography

I first met Freddie Roach when I went to his Wild Card Gym to photograph MMA fighter Andrei Arlovski. Freddie was the boxing coach on Andrei’s dream team. I was taken by many aspects of Freddie. He is not what you would expect for the trainer to champions like Manny Pacquiao, Mike Tyson and Oscar de la Hoya. Freddie is a small quiet man with his black rimmed glasses. He got in the ring to train Andrei and became a focused laser to get his fighter to punch harder and not hesitate for a second. I knew I wanted to do a portrait of Freddie. I love the back wall in his gym, the private place where fighters train. It is tagged with Wild Card in great graphics. I knew that first day I would shoot him on that wall. The Wild Card is a classic old school boxing gym. The walls are covered in famous fighters photos, boxing gloves hang all along one wall…it’s classic right down to the smell that hits you when you enter…sweat and determination in equal parts. Freddie is charming and sweet and gave us Wild Card T shirts when we left. We will wear them proudly!