"The sad part is, what Tim doesn't get credit for, in all seriousness, is that he's brought something to the Pacquiao fans that nobody has ever been able to bring. Videos, behind-the-scenes, you know, articles, strength-and-conditioning tips...I never felt that Michael Koncz served any real purpose. I still don't feel like he serves any real purpose. You know, just because he doesn't like Tim because Tim is the only guy who's actually saying and doing. That in itself creates a problem [for Koncz] because anybody that actually says something and actually does it and comes through, Manny is impressed with it. I mean, look at where that website is today...I think it's pathetic and it's cheap and it just goes to show you the integrity and the dignity of some people. I'll never respect anything that comes out of Michael Marley's mouth, especially after the idiot said that I was fired from Chavez's camp and his source was a little birdie," remarked a fired up Alex Ariza, who spoke to us about the recent news regarding Michael Koncz, as well as the apparent smear campaign directed towards Timothy James Sladeck and Manny Pacquiao's official website, MP8.ph, where Ariza currently writes a blog about strength and conditioning. You do not want to miss what he had to say about the drama that's unfolded throughout the week. Check it out!
BT: Alex, what's going on bro?
AA: Not much, Ben.
BT: I'm sure Fight Week has kept you busy, but have you seen all the craziness that's been going on this week about your boy Michael Koncz?
AA: Me and Freddie are sitting here, you know, we're here during Fight Week and, man, we just scratch our head every day thinking, "What the fuck?"
BT: What's Freddie saying about all of this?
AA: He just shakes his head, man. He just says, "Fuck, dude." He loves that Manny does have a legitimate company [VisionQwest] and he's got real people, and I'm with Freddie. If somebody could talk Manny into doing something like that, then it'll be a good thing, but you just never know where it's going to end up. I don't agree with them fighting this thing in the media though. Get the information, get it down, and just quietly let Michael go.
BT: It looks like Koncz didn't take too kindly about the news of his firing, demotion, or whatever you want to call it, so he's sending his dogs on the attack. I guess they decided to start a smear campaign against Tim [Timothy James Sladeck], attacking his past, taking shots at Manny's official website, you name it.
AA: Yeah, I saw all of it. When Tim asked me to write for the site, I went to Manny. I asked Manny himself. He goes, "100%, this is my website. I own this website. Tim is in charge. It's legitimate. It's going to be good. It will help the people. They want to know about my training. They want to know about this and that." So for him [Michael Marley] to have the fucking audacity to say that it's not, or just to even give the inclination that it's not the official website, he's out of his fucking mind; he doesn't know what he's talking about. He's never sat down with Manny Pacquiao or been near Manny Pacquiao in his fucking life. I heard it out of Manny's mouth himself. He told me when we were in Baguiao that they were really going to do a big push on the website, you know, with videos and all of that stuff. So I heard it from Manny's mouth. He's never so much as given...has he ever quoted Manny? Has he ever been next to Manny? You think that Manny is going to let somebody inside of that bullet proof fucking tank that we drive around that he doesn't know and that he hasn't approved of him filming video inside of there? We just randomly let some kid in the back seat with our back to him and we don't know what he's there to do? I mean, it's just so stupid. The sad part is, what Tim doesn't get credit for, in all seriousness, is that he's brought something to the Pacquiao fans that nobody has ever been able to bring. Videos, behind-the-scenes, you know, articles, strength-and-conditioning tips. What the fuck? What is their fucking problem? What is it that he's doing that they don't like?
BT: I don't know man, but there's been a couple of people who have really made it a point to attack his character.
AA: Not to mention, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was the most viewed Boxing After Dark in 5 years and I can tell you right now that was a huge part of MPBoxing.com [MP8.ph] because there was Chavez Jr. video up every day. Filipino fans were following it, Mexican fans were following it, people were following it, everybody that went to that website; and I can tell you he did 1.5 million views because of that website.
BT: Tim's been working with you guys for quite some time now, as far back as 2009 I believe. I think I even remember Michael Koncz doing a few interviews with Tim back when he was running the first version of Manny's official website at Crave Online. I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me that Michael Marley's smear campaign started the minute it looked like Koncz's job was in jeopardy and he was about to get the boot.
AA: Clearly! Clearly! Michael's been doing that shit to me for years. I'm definitely a part of the Michael Koncz undermining and passive aggressive bullshit. That's why I had to slap him up because he fucking couldn't keep his mouth shut and understand what his place was, you know? I never felt that Michael Koncz served any real purpose. I still don't feel like he serves any real purpose. You know, just because he doesn't like Tim because Tim is the only guy who's actually saying and doing. That in itself creates a problem [for Koncz] because anybody that actually says something and actually does it and comes through, Manny is impressed with it. I mean, look at where that website is today.
BT: Oh, I know. When he left Crave, he literally started over from scratch. I think that was back in December or January when he was asking me for help to get it off the ground and in just, what, roughly 6 months, it's come a long way in a short period of time.
AA: Yeah, in a short period of time. I mean, there's still a ton of work to do that they want to do and stuff, but thanks to you as well for linking up the articles and videos and stuff like that, he's scratching...you know, whatever he did, we all have a past. So fucking what? You know what, a lot of my personal friends today have a past, you know, but we all grow up. They're still my friends. You learn from your mistakes and you move on with your life.
BT: I agree. We all have a past. Me, you, Tim, Freddie, Manny, we all have a past. Even Michael Marley has a past (laughing). I guess a lot of fans are seeing the stuff that Marley is writing about his past though, so now they're all wondering how and why Tim is involved at all with Manny. As far as I know, all of you guys, Manny included, already knew about his past, right?
AA: Manny does know about his past. He always has. I knew about it before too. When Tim asked me to do a strength-and-conditioning blog on the site, I went to Manny and I asked him. I said, "Bro, you know that shit about his past?" Manny said, "Dude, whatever. It's no big deal. It's a website. It's my website, Tim is running it, and it'll be good. It'll be good for you, it'll be good for the people. The people want to see me. Tim was upfront about his past." It's not like he's trying to hide it. The people that are important, that are supposed to know, we know. The people that don't mean shit, like fucking Marley, this is all news to him. It's like he fucking uncovered something like Geraldo Rivera; like he fucking broke some kind of news. That shit is old fucking news; it's three years old.
BT: That was actually the first thing he ever told me the first time I met him. He told me his full name, he gave me the story about his past, and he said he just wanted me to know all of that upfront. I was just like, okay, whatever, and kept it moving. I didn't reall y give a shit about that either. He just wanted some help with the website, so all of that was irrelevant to me.
AA: I think it's pathetic and it's cheap and it just goes to show you the integrity and the dignity of some people. I'll never respect anything that comes out of Michael Marley's mouth, especially after the idiot said that I was fired from Chavez's camp and his source was a little birdie. How the fuck would he know? He doesn't speak spanish, and that dumb fuck Michael Koncz surely doesn't speak any spanish, so how the fuck did they know anything about what goes on in Chavez Jr.'s camp? That's the reason why I'm glad that Chavez never signed with Michael Koncz, because he's a fucking idiot and a moron and he would've drove Chavez's career into the toilet as well. Let me ask you something, how is it that MP Promotions is the most losing fucking promtional company in the history of fucking boxing?
BT: (Laughing) Because he's not doing anything with it; Koncz is not a boxing guy.
AA: There's not a winning fucking fighter in that fucking stable; not a winning fucking fighter, if it wasn't for Manny Pacquiao. There's probably hundreds of talented Filipinos, so why isn't he getting any signed?
BT: Like I said, because he's not a boxing guy; he's not running it like he's supposed to.
AA: He's no boxing guy, he's no lawyer, he has no business looking at numbers. He needs to stick to doing what he does best: fetching shit, taking orders, and fucking getting slapped by Manny. Those are the three best things that he can do. Just leave the real work and the business...you know, trying to get rid of Freddie, trying to get rid of msyelf...that's why he is in the situation that he is in, becaue he focuses on the trivial little petty bullshit. Becaue Freddie wouldn't lend him any money, so now he's got this hell-bent grudge against Freddie. Obviously I don't like his dumb ass and now he's still harboring some ill-feelings because I slapped him up. All he does is cause shit. On the flip side, I mean, I would hope that a guy like Michael Marley, who obviously, I mean, if he graduated law school and passed the bar, he would have a little bit sense and intelligence instead of taking the word of some fucking block like Michael Koncz. He's just another pencil-pushing bitch boy, just like Nick Giongco and Abac Cordero, who's on fucking Koncz's balls as well. He should stick to the shit that he knows, like writing stupid fucking columns and fucking coming up with bullshit stories from his little birdie sources and leave the real story writing to the real journalists and the serious boxing people because he doesn't know shit about Manny Pacquiao. He hasn't done a one-on-one interview with Manny Pacquiao. I guarantee he doesn't have Manny Pacquiao's phone number. Where's Tim right now? He's with Manny Pacquiao. Where's that little kid [James Dayap] that does all the filming? He's with Manny Pacquiao. Why? Because it's a legitimate website.
BT: (Laughing) Speaking of legitimate websites, the smear campaign has spilled over to me and FightHype.com as well. I guess because I've done some interviews with Floyd on the site, we're now called biased and labeled as "Mayweathercentric" and "Floydhype.com" by other writers. I mean, it's funny and clever, and something I would expect fans to say, but when I see so-called professionals like Marley and that cat Dsour...
AA: Oh Dsource, fucking please. He's got his head up his fucking ass too.
BT: (Laughing) Those dudes seem likely they absolutely hate me and everything that we do hear at FightHype.com. I don't know why they just can't keep our name out their mouth. We're not writing about them, so...I mean, it's all good though. We just keep it moving. It's good to know they visit the site though.
AA: Haters, my man, haters! You're job is to write whatever people say. You're not biased. You just write whatever they say...people want it uncut and unedited. You know what, you tell the story. You'll talk to anybody who's going to talk to you back. This is what it's like, it's like me talking about Floyd this and Floyd that. You can come out and say, "How the fuck would you know? You've never talked to Floyd. You don't have his number, you've never heard him on the phone, he's never called you, you've never called him, so how the fuck do you know?" That's exactly what it's like, so how the fuck does Marley know. He don't talk to Manny. He's never interviewed Manny. He don't have Manny's number. Manny don't call him, he doesn't call Manny, so how the fuck do you know? I'm gonna throw $10 at Marley and say, "Here's fucking 10 clicks, dick! Save your viewers the agony of reading that horseshit that you write."
BT: (Laughing) Damn. It's just funny to me though because I think sometimes, both they and the fans think that I won't talk to you or Freddie simply because you might talk some shit about Floyd or Roger Mayweather or something like that. Man, I don't give a damn about that shit. I'll talk to anybody who wants to talk to me and anybody that I can get a hold of. We give everyone a chance to say what they want to say on our platform. It's all about giving the fighters a chance to get closer to the fans and getting the story straight from the horses mouth.
AA: You know, it pisses me off because I'm thinking all of the fucking work that I do and write and come up with this and that for the webiste, and then this fucking fat fuck comes out and tries to insinuate that it's not Manny's real website? How the fuck do you know? You're not on it. It just pisses me off because, you know what, even Manny, it's kind of a slap in Manny's face because he took time out to give these interviews, to let the guy tag along with the camera, and try to build this thing and give something back to fans, and Mike [Marley] acts like he has some fucking insight into what goes on in Team Pacquiao. Michael Koncz isn't even included in this shit. That's how out he is.
BT: You're right. It makes Manny look like he doesn't have a clue and he didn't know anything about Tim or his history.
AA: He knew. We all knew. And what's that got to do with him building a good website? What's that got to do with it? He was able to turn himself around. Just because Michael Koncz couldn't fucking bail himself out of that disaster of going bankrupt trying to get Ike Ibeabuchi out of jail, he had to hang on Manny's coattails to get somewhere. He couldn't do it on his own and he's not self-made like Tim. That's no reason to hate the guy.
BT: It's almost like they're trying to blame this whole VisionQwest thing on Tim, like he spearheaded it or something in hopes of getting Koncz out of the picture to take his job.
AA: That makes no sense. So if Tim is this nobody who's got nobody's ear, how the fuck did he...they're so contradicting with the shit that they say. First he's this, he's this, he's this, but yet he talked Manny into changing his whole life by hiring an accounting firm? So Tim's got that much pull? Then I'm fucking afraid of Tim then. I have trouble getting Manny up in the fucking morning, so if Tim can get Manny to fucking change all of that shit and do all that and hire this company, then I'm afraid of Tim. He's got Manny's ear more than I do.
BT: (Laughing) Manny bringing in that accounting firm and having people who know what the hell they're doing when it comes to money, that should be a good thing, shouldn't it? I don't understand why certain people are focusing on so much negativity instead of writing about how positive this can be. I mean, in my opinion, it doesn't really make any sense to have your promotional company also handling your endorsement deals. I'm not saying Top Rank is doing a bad job with it at all, but still, that just doesn't really make any sense to me. How many other promotional companies are out there getting endorsement deals for their fighters?
AA: No sense at all; none at all. And who do you think allowed that shit to happen? What kind of an adviser lets a promoter be in charge of a everything? That's the kind of adviser...no wonder he's fucking fired. I tell you bro, it's just too much.
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]