Alex Ariza dropped another bomb on Manny Pacquiao and his team, believing the Filipino boxer would have never been spectacular without his strength and conditioning knowledge.
In an interview with Ring News 24, Ariza talked about the extraordinary improvement Pacquiao gained during his five-year working relationship and the current form of the former pound-for-pound king.
"Manny Pacquiao whether people wanna believe it or not, was an ordinary fighter. Manny Pacquiao went from ordinary to extraordinary when we got there, and now he's back to being an average fighter," Ariza said.
Ariza's role as Pacquiao's strength and conditioning coach took a bitter ending after he was unceremoniously fired by the fighter roughly three months ago. The conditioning coach then decided to join the camp of Pacquiao's upcoming foe Brandon Rios, though he insisted the move was purely business.
"It was a hard decision but it was a business one," Ariza said about his decision to accept the offer from reigning Trainer of the Year Roberto Garcia to help him train Brandon Rios and other fighter.
Ariza believed that his expertise as strength and conditioning guru will be a deciding factor when Rios guns for the biggest win of his career against the former eight-division world champion.
"I'm not there to lose, I'm there to win. I think that because we have a really good team and we've been very successful with troubleshooting things and fixing things and bringing out the best in fighters," said Ariza.
When asked who would win between his new prize fighter in Rios and Pacquiao, Ariza refrained from predicting the outcome of the fight; however, he says, it will surely be a war.
"I don't make predictions, I think we learned a hard lesson that way you know, Freddie's been making predictions for the last four of Manny's fights and we end up with egg on our face," Ariza said.
"What I can tell you is that we are coming for a war. I'm training Brandon to fight the best Manny Pacquiao that there is, no excuses. We won't have any excuses and we don't want them to have any excuses, like "he was shot" or "Marquez ruined him" or this or that. When our hands are raised I don't want to hear any excuses," he added.
Pacquiao and Rios will face each other in the ring on Nov. 24 at Venetian Macao in Macau, China.
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