By Dennis Principe
Hall-of-Fame trainer Freddie Roach is not bothered by the presence of their former conditioning coach Alex Ariza in the corner of their upcoming opponent Brandon Rios.
Interviewed by BoxingScene.com, Roach said he actually sees it as an advantage for their camp.
“Him being in the corner, I actually love that because he’s disruptive in the corner. I’m happy he’s there. I don’t know maybe Robert Garcia needs a helper,” said Roach.
After five years working with Pacquiao, Ariza was allowed to go (some Pacquiao insiders say he was fired, depending on who you are talking to) August of this year then immediately joined Rios in Oxnard, California.
Roach said Ariza’s time with their team will not work to Rios’ advantage as he belittles the ability of the controversial conditioning coach when it comes to being part of a fight plan.
“He’s a training coach. He stretches people and he’s good at that. He did a good job for a while but he wanted to do every other else’s job. He burned a lot of bridges,” said Roach. “His experience in boxing is what I gave him. If I didn’t hire him off the streets, I mean he had nothing before I gave him a break.”
Roach said he knew a long time ago that it was only a matter of time before Ariza would be out of their team.
That is why when Ariza was asking him about his boxing expertise, he just made Ariza feel he was getting some good tips from the famed trainer.
“What does he know? You know what, every time he asks me questions about boxing, I just said ‘Ya’. He’s like miles away,” said Roach.
Pacquiao will meet Rios in a 12-round welterweight battle at the Cotai Arena located inside the Venetian Hotel in Macau.
Both fighters are coming off defeats, with Pacquiao suffering a devastating 6th round knockout loss to bitter Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez last December while Rios dropped a 12-round decision verdict to Mike Alvarado in their WBO lightwelterweight title fight March of this year.
