Alex Ariza, the former strength and conditioning coach for Manny Pacquiao, who’s currently working with Brandon Rios, recently went on the record and blasted Freddie Roach. Ariza in an article written by BoxingScene.com blames Roach’s physical condition as the reason why some of the Wild Card Gym fighters have lost their recent fights.
Ariza claims that Roach can no longer push his fighters as far as they are needed to be pushed. As most who follow the sport of boxing knows, Roach lives with Parkinsons disease. Roach has bravely and methodically pushed through it and has acheived the highest level of success in the sport for several years. So, is Ariza’s theory true? It is true that Roach’s prize horses as have not performed as well as the boxing world has grown accustomed to. That much is true. Pacquiao was knocked out brutally by JMM, but was that Roach’s fault? To me, it looked cut and dry. Pacquiao walked into a punch he never saw. That had nothing to do with Roach. Fighter’s walk into punches all the time. It’s part of the sport, and when it happens, it’s not the trainers fault.
I recently got word that Roach has been engaged in some extremely intense mitt work with Miguel Cotto. Honestly? I don’t think a guy like Miguel Cotto would continue on training with a person who wasn’t physically able to do the job. I also don’t think Roach would continue training fighters if he himself felt like he no longer could do the job. Roach is a former fighter himself. I’m going to go out on the limb here and say, Roach wouldn’t continue on as a trainer if his Parkinsons advanced to a point where his fighters were losing because of it.
Ariza brought up Amir Khan’s knockout as well. Khan has developed a bit of a reputation of having a glass jaw. Is it fair to blame a suspect chin on the trainer? You can blame a bad strategy on a trainer, but a knockout? Can you blame the trainer if his fighter gets cracked by a punch they didn’t see?
Does Ariza’s theory on Roach have merit? I’ll say this, it’s possible, but not probable.
