As reported by various outlets online, a near brawl took place in Macau, China mere hours ago between Manny Pacquiao?s trainer Freddie Roach and members from the team of Brandon Rios, including trainer Robert Garcia and brazen strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza.
Pacquiao faces off with Rios on Saturday night, Nov. 23 in Macau, China on HBO pay per view.
Upon catching wind of all the drama, I caught up with Top Rank CEO Bob Arum to get his reaction on the ordeal.
?We had a camera,? Arum revealed. ?Freddie and Robert Garcia got into a shoving match and allegedly, some writers who were there claimed that Ariza threw a sucker punch at Freddie.?
?This is ok in an event in the United States,? Arum continued. ?But we?re going to throw huge security around this, because this is not something that is appreciated by the Chinese.?
Arum added that Rios was about ten minutes late with his training inside of the gym that the teams were sharing. Roach came into the building and was apparently upset that the gym had been cleared out.
From there, things spiraled out of control.
Arum feels that all of the mayhem will add to the intrigue of the Pacquiao-Rios fight by the time the bell rings.
?I think, that with all this undercurrent that?s going on, it?s going to be like Hagler-Hearns,? Arum stated.
?They?re going to go out and try to kill each other.?
