Roach on having trained Andy Ruiz in the past, and what he made of his upset win over Anthony Joshua:
“I bet on [Ruiz]...and I like Joshua and I’m friendly with Joshua, he’s a nice guy and all that, but I think they picked the wrong guy...Every fighter in the world who trains and fights like these guys, you know why they all train? Because you never know when you’re gonna get that call. You never know. And he got the call at the right time and he was in the gym ready to go. If he was out fuckin’ around and wasn’t ready, he would’ve had to say no to that fight. But he was in the gym, he said yes, and he was ready to go for it and now we have a new Mexican champion of the world.”
On what happens in the Ruiz-Joshua rematch:
“Same thing. Because if Joshua doesn’t completely change his ways — ever since he fought Klitschko he’s been going downhill a little bit. A lot more muscle, he looks really good and so forth, I think he has trouble carrying that muscle and he’s been fatigued in his last couple fights. He’s been getting tired before the end, and I don’t think that muscles make fighters. Like ‘oh, he has big biceps so he must punch hard’ — gimme a break. I’d like to say he needs a new team and so forth, and I’d like to be that part of that team because I do like him, he’s a friend, yes, but I’m not trying to steal a fighter [laughs]. But the thing is, I think he needs to go back to what he did when he won the Olympics, ‘cause that’s when he was a really, really good fighter, in my opinion.”
On if he thinks it matters where the fight takes place:
“90,000 people in the U.K., who wouldn’t want to fight in front of those people? I mean, same result, I don’t care where you fight.”