"He's not a pro," stated Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach when asked for his opinion on Alex Ariza's decision to leave Manny Pacquiao's training camp in order to begin working with WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Despite the fact that the strength & conditioning coach has repeatedly expressed in interviews his intention of returning to the United States at the end of April, Roach is adamant that he was blindsided by the news and feels the decision was simply motivated by money. "What Alex had done is very unprofessional. He signed a contract to do a job and he practically rescinded that deal unilaterally. How can he do that," Roach explained.
According to Ariza, however, his plans were already made clear to both Amir Khan, who he had already been in the Philippines working with for the past 4 weeks, as well as Pacquiao, who actually gave him the permission to leave when he was asked last Friday. "Not only does Manny know my situation, Amir knows our situation, Julio knows the situation and knows that I'll be back in time to start training with him," Ariza would tell FightHype's own Ben Thompson over 3 weeks ago. The fact that he actually asked Manny Pacquiao for permission to leave camp temporarily leads this writer to believe that Ariza's priority actually lies with Pacquiao, as I would think he likely would have stayed had the 8-division world champion not given him the okay. Roach, however, disagrees with that assessment.
"Worse, he made the decision because of money. That to me is unacceptable," Roach continued in an interview with Eddie Alinea of PhilBoxing.com, suggesting that Ariza's loyalty lies with money. The notion seems kind of odd considering that Manny Pacquiao is the second highest paid athlete in the sport and will be earning a reported career-high purse of $25 million for his June 9th showdown with Timothy Bradley. As far as I know, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. isn't making anywhere near that kind of money, so Roach is either implying that Chavez Jr. is a very generous man when it comes to his employees salaries, or Pacquiao is very cheap. Either way, perhaps it would be wise for Freddie Roach to look in the mirror before he starts accusing people of being motivated by money. After all, the last time I checked, he too is supposed to be training Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and yet, he himself is in the Philippines working with his cash cow. In fact, this isn't the first time that Roach has chosen his cash cow over other fighters he trains. If memory serves me correctly, back in April of 2007, Freddie Roach was training Peter Manfredo Jr. for the biggest fight of his career, a world title challenge against undefeated super middleweight king Joe Calzaghe, but instead of traveling to Cardiff, Wales to work the corner for his fighter, Roach decided to stay behind to continue training Oscar De La Hoya for his Cinco de Mayo showdown with Floyd Mayweather. It seems a bit ironic that Roach would accuse Ariza of doing something that he himself has consistently done in the past and continues to do today.
Nevertheless, Ariza is now with Chavez Jr. and the team will begin their training camp shortly after today's press conference in El Paso, Texas to announce the fight. According to both Ariza and Pacquiao, the plan is to reunite in Los Angeles in the first week of May when Pacquiao, as well as Khan, arrive at the Wild Card boxing gym to resume training. Although it seems like the fighter and the strength & conditioning are on the same page, Roach seems indifferent about the reunion. "Well, we know how kind hearted a man Manny is. It's up to him whether to accept Alex anew. It makes no difference to me. If he's back, I can still work with him. If not, we'll have to move on," he added.