LAS VEGAS – Freddie Roach stands at a press conference in a giant tent out behind the MGM Grand. He grips the podium in an effort to stop his hands from shaking. He can’t help his head from crunching down onto his right shoulder. His voice is halting. It’s all a reminder of the Parkinson’s that plagues him.

He’d rather be in a gym somewhere, preferably back at the Wild Card in Hollywood, preferably across from Manny Pacquiao, wearing mitts and working the grind because the ease that comes from doing hard things makes him forget how hard it can be to do easy things.

View photos Manny Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach speaks during a news conference Thursday. (Getty) More

Roach is 55, and his slew of Trainer of the Year awards and his stable of past, current and future champions are signs of immense success. His constant presence at the biggest fights in boxing overshadow the stark reality that there is nothing else like this in America, someone of his stature dealing with such an unrelenting, crushing disease.

He’s at his best even as illness tries to anchor him down.

“With Parkinson’s, sometimes you wake up and think: ‘Why the [expletive] did they pick me?' " Roach told the London Telegraph. "But, you know, that’s part of life.”

He openly talks about how the challenges can crush his spirit, that pity and frustration are natural emotions that need to be overcome. It also, he notes, focuses him on the task at hand. In lieu of a wife or kids or vacations or almost any obvious hobbies or interest, the work isn’t just his life; it may be what’s keeping him alive.

This is everything.

Which makes this fight everything about everything.

No one involved appears as fired up for Saturday’s long-awaited Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao as Roach.

Obviously, everyone involved wants desperately to win, but Roach is the one chirping the loudest, wearing his emotion on his sleeve, more than willing to admit that this isn’t just another fight. He appreciates the history. He covets the opportunity at hand.

Mayweather represents the white whale of his career and Roach knows that there are only so many chances to compete on this stage, against that kind of elite fighter. This is everyone’s crowning achievement, everything you can dream of in a sport based on long, lonely hours far from the spotlight.

And with Parkinson’s, no one knows just how long his career can realistically last. Like a fighter, time sadly ticks for the trainer.

“I think I take pride in my work," he said Thursday. "And I hate to lose."

View photos Trainer Freddie Roach speaks to media before a Manny Pacquiao workout. (AFP) More

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