Fans of boxing drama on the small screen can pick themselves up off the canvas after FX dropped “Lights Out” as HBO has acquired a docuseries about veteran fight trainer Freddie Roach.
Aiming for a debut in early 2012, when Roach will be involved in training U.S. Olympic boxers for the 2012 London Games, the premium cable network has ordered six episodes of On Freddie Roach. 
Produced by “Friday Night Lights” director Peter Berg (along with Jim Lampley, Sarah Aubrey and Michael Price), the cinema vérité series is set at Roach’s Wildcard Boxing Club in Hollywood where he has trained fighters including Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Oscar De La Hoya and celebrities like Mickey Rourke.
“This is a show on which we will provide an intimate, penetrating look at one man’s race against time. Freddie’s colorful life is a non-stop effort to put as many marks on the board as possible before Parkinson’s closes his curtains. There is drama in his work in the gym. There is even greater drama in the quiet of the doctor’s office or in the clanging of the MRI tube. Our cameras will be there, ” says Lampley.
The veteran trainer has been seen in the corner for many of HBO’s televised prize fights and his career and battle with Parkinson’s was recently chronicled on HBO’s Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.
