The night of June 5th of this year belonged to Puerto Rico?s Miguel Cotto as he picked apart Belarus? Yuri Foreman on his way towards a ninth round stoppage. Cotto netted the WBA Jr. Middleweight crown with his rise in weight and despite Foreman suffering a leg injury in the seventh round it was still Cotto?s poised attack that defined the night. Coming off of a heart wrenching knockout loss to Manny Pacquiao seven months prior, Cotto showed the boxing world that his story is far from finished.
With a December 4th battle with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. now in the works the spotlight is again getting ready to set on the Caugus fighter. One man who has gotten to know Chavez extremely well is his new strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who has been working with the 24-year old ever since his relocation to Freddie Roach?s Wild Card Gym in May. When assessing the matchup Ariza has all the reason in the world to be believe that his side will be victorious.
?I think it?s a really good fight,? Ariza stated. ?The thing is that Freddie already knows how to beat Cotto. It?s a really good fight, especially for a guy like Chavez who is young and likes to challenge himself. I think having an eight week camp instead of four weeks, which is what we had to get ready for [John] Duddy, is going to be a big difference. I think the main thing will be that Freddie knows how to beat Cotto and Chavez is going to be too big and too strong.?
Before hooking up with Roach there was a definite amount of criticism directed towards Chavez? way, as the Sinaloa, Mexico fighter?s skills and commitment were questioned by various boxing insiders. Upon meeting him for the first time Ariza saw that those assumptions were well off base.
?He?s really quiet, that was the first thing,? Ariza stated when asked for his first thoughts on the young fighter. ?He was nothing like everybody had painted him to be, as if he was lazy, didn?t have any work ethic. He didn?t have any of those things. What stood out for me was his work ethic. Everybody knows that I like to start everything early at 5 AM and the first day he got up he took that first step with Vanes [Martirosyan] and then the next morning he was up at 5 in the morning waiting for us. When he gets motivated he will do something 100%.?
