Alex Ariza blasted Freddie Roach after Manny Pacquiao’s loss to Floyd Mayweather. With many expecting the mega-fight to be a close contest, Mayweather won by a comfortable unanimous decision and the former conditioning coach to Pacquiao had a few choice words for Roach.
Ariza, who was working for Mayweather for the fight, stated that Roach’s pre-fight outbursts to the media was one of the catalysts to Pacquiao’s loss.
Speaking to ESNews Ariza said, “Freddie [Roach] ran his mouth this whole camp, Freddie said it was going to be a knockout, he’s be surprised if Floyd did not run all night, he’s be surprised of this, he’d be surprised of that. If he would’ve shut the f*** up and trained Manny, he wouldn’t have had all those problems.”
Ariza believes that Pacquiao is still a great fighter although an overhaul is needed in his team for him to carry on his previous successes in his career.
“Listen, Manny is still there, he’s just got the wrong team. You need to dump that old s**t, and get some new guys, some real smart guys with credentials, a track record of success. I mean Freddie has been shot forever, he’s a product of the media.” Ariza told ESNews.
Both Roach and Ariza have endured a sour relationship after Ariza left Pacquiao. Roach has blasted Ariza previously, expressing that the conditioning coach was “shady” and was suspicious of the drinks that Ariza was giving to his fighters.
“I don’t get along with the guy, and one of the reasons why he doesn’t work for me anymore is because I think he’s a little shady, you know. He used to give Manny a drink every day before we worked out and I asked him, ‘What’s in that drink,’ and he would never tell me. And I said, ‘I need to know what’s in that drink because, you know, you’re giving it to my fighter and if something goes wrong, I’m gonna get the blame.’ In my opinion, he’s a little shady, so he’s with that camp now and it doesn’t surprise me that happened,” Roach told FightHype in January 2014.
In November 2013, the two men came face to face when Ariza was the conditioning coach for Brandon Rios. After Freddie Roach confronted Robert Garcia about taking over their allocated gym time, Ariza kicked Roach as the two traded in derogatory slurs.
Since then Ariza has filed lawsuit against Roach for defamation and still it is evident that the hatred between the pair is ever present.
– Oun Abbas Hussain / @ouney86
– Correspondent for Behind the Gloves.
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