World-class strength & conditioning coach Alex Ariza has left Manny Pacquiao’s training camp to head back to the United States to begin working with WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. The news should come as no surprise to FightHype readers, as Ariza previously informed us that he would be returning in April to begin training camp with Chavez Jr. “I’ll be back the third week of April. Chavez will be starting camp shortly after that. He’s doing a 10-week camp. He’ll be starting training a little bit early,” Ariza commented in an interview last month.
What is somewhat of a suprise, however, is that Pacquiao just started training with Ariza last week. Although Ariza has been in the Philippines for the past 4 weeks working with former jr. welterweight champion Amir Khan, Pacquiao had yet to hook up with Ariza or his Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach. Both men were under the impression that Pacquiao wanted to begin working with them early, but for whatever reasons, the 8-division world champion did not arrive to their training camp in Baguio until 4 days ago. Pacquiao isn’t expected to arrive in the United States until May. Given the fact that Ariza had stressed to Pacquiao the importance of getting back to training his way, one has to wonder if the limited time that the two worked together will play a role in the upcoming June 9th showdown with undefeated jr. welterweight champion Timothy Bradley.
