"It's not about what's best for the fighter. It's clear as to why the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight has never happened. It's always about what's best for Bob and his agenda...Let me ask you something, why is it that Bob can do a co-promotion with everybody else out there? He can do a co-promotion with anyone, DiBella, this guy, that guy, but he won't do a co-promotion when it comes to Manny Pacquiao fighting somebody. Whoever Manny fights, he has to fight in-house. Why is that do you think? I wonder why...I know that Michael Koncz says that he's having a meeting with Bob to negotiate the Mayweather fight. They're having a meeting on how to make sure that this fight doesn't happen. That's what their meeting is about...We still are sticking firm. I think that's the fight that everybody wants to see. Here's the thing, Dana White is 100% absolutely correct. Bob Arum is a greedy pig. Now I see...Arum hates Floyd Mayweather, can't stand him, doesn't want to see him make a dollar, can't stand Golden Boy, doesn't want to do business with them, but instead of doing what's best for the sport, what's best for the fans, and what's best for the fighters because they'll get the payday of a lifetime, no, it's all about him...Unless you can tell me and convince me otherwise, because I'm thoroughly convinced and believe that Floyd really does want to have this fight. I think he really wants to have this fight. As far as he knows, he's right. He's right. Bob is the one interfering," stated a heated Alex Ariza, who had a lot to get off of his chest about things that he's not thankful for, namely promoter Bob Arum, who not only has been interfering with he and Freddie Roach's relationship with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., but is also standing in the way of a mega-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. You do not want to miss what else he had to say in this eplosive interview. Check it out!
BT: Alex, congratulations on Julio's impressive win this past weekend. I was really surprised to see him come out boxing on his toes the way he was. Was that by design? Did you guys go into the fight with the expectation to outbox Manfredo?
AA: You know, Freddie told Julio, he says, "He's talking about retiring. He's talking about this being possibly his last fight. I think that he's going to come out really, really hard and strong early." So from the get-go, Freddie told him, "I want you to box. I want you to establish the jab." I think I told you the last time that if he was going to change his game plan, we had something ready for him. So Julio maintained discipline and he really just stuck to it, and he did exactly what the game plan really was. He [Freddie] said he was supposed to stick with the jab, start landing it, get the timing down, break him down and then go for the knockout. Thankfully, it worked out that way.
BT: In the past, people have questioned his conditioning, but he looked really good for this fight. You guys have to be pleased with the way he came in shape for this fight and the type of performance he was able to put on.
AA: You know what? You would think everybody is happy about it. I know Freddie is really ecstatic that he stuck to the game plan and he maintained discipline, especially after he got hit a couple of times; he didn't go back to the old style. I'm really happy for him because I told him not to worry about getting tired, just keep pushing, pushing, pushing and he did that. The only one who seems to have a problem is Bob Arum.
BT: Really? Bob's not happy with the performance or the way he looked?
AA: Well, unfortunately, I've heard this again for the second time that Bob has decided to stick his nose in the business between me and one of my fighters. I've heard from several good sources close to Chavez's camp that he's trying to have Freddie and I removed and out of there.
BT: What? Freddie too?
AA: Yeah, Freddie too. They told me that shortly after the fight, there was a push to have him move over the hill to Robert Garcia. There were some comments made that, you know, Garcia is a Mexican style type trainer and that Freddie is only good at training guys like Amir [Khan] and Manny [Pacquiao]; Garcia is a true Mexican kind of style, he speaks Spanish, and all kinds of other shit. Then he [Arum] reverted back to saying, "Freddie doesn't have time for you, and any time that Pacquiao or any one of those bigger name fighters comes, you're going to be second on the list." I thought that was very ironic that Bob was trying to insinuate that he was going to be treated second-rate since Bob is a fucking master of treating Julio like shit. I mean, we saw during the Ronald Hearns fight how fucking unprofessional they were with the way they handled that whole thing. One guy saying he did have a fight, the other guy saying he didn't have a fight; from Bob's own mouth saying that the kid is unpredictable, he's out of his mind, he's insane. I found it kind of funny him saying that he was getting second-rate treatment from us, but he's been getting shit-rate treatment from Bob as long as I've been training the kid.
BT: Wow! I mean, I thought Bob was pleased with the work you did with Julio in the past. I don't understand why he wouldn't be happy after Saturday's performance.
AA: Here's the thing, I had several reporters come to me earlier after the Pacquiao fight telling me that Bob was behind the scenes getting people ask about me regarding what I was doing in the corner and why I had to stop the bleeding. You know, I think we went over this. I mean, it took 28 stitches to close Manny's cut and it was 3 layers deep. Miguel didn't see the cut when it occurred or he would have been up in the ring. When Manny sat down it was the first time that I saw. I had swab in my mouth from the round before when I worked on the cut on Manny's mouth. When Manny sat down and I saw the cut i instinctually went to work on it. So what? I took the initiative to go in there, close it, and stop the bleeding. And after the round I told Miguel he was cut and to get up there the next round, which he did. So what is Bob so upset about? Would he rather I didn't touch. tell Miguel to get his medicine ready and come up? It would of taken him sixty seconds to just get up the stairs with his medicine. You would think a simple, "Thank you, Alex, for stepping in and controlling a bad situation that could have been a really worse situation. Manny went out the next two rounds to pull it out." But no, he's gotta congregate his little platoon of writers, which, by the way, if he thinks they're loyal to him, he's out of his fucking mind because they know what he was trying to do and I'll tell you right now, most of them came and told me what he was trying to do, trying to get them to badmouth me in the media, like a little girl, instead of being a man about things and coming up to me and approaching me to say whatever his problem was with me. But he didn't do that, so him and Michael Koncz started conjuring up things, like I'm to blame for Manny's cramp or trying to say that I somehow made the cut worse. Did you see the cut bleed after the 10th round?
BT: Nope.
AA: Then what is he bitching about? He gets some no-name cut man to say that because I used a towel to stop the cut by applying pressure, that somehow affected the cut. How the fuck would you know, Bob? How would he know if there was any problems with the cut in the corner? He wouldn't. He wasn't in the locker room when the plastic surgeon was stitching him up. He wasn't around. It's just more of this undermining bullshit between him and Koncz trying to get me fired, which, thankfully, like I said, I've talked to Manny. You know, I don't know what his game plan was, but apparently, that didn't work out, so that rolls over into the Chavez camp obviously. For whatever reason, he's trying to get me out of Chavez's camp, so now, whatever his agenda is with getting rid of me, it's starting to widdle over to Robert Garcia, saying that he's going to be the Trainer of the Year and he's the new hot trainer in boxing. Where the fuck does Bob Arum get off?
BT: I believe he did something similar with Kelly Pavlik. I'm pretty sure he told Kelly Pavlik that he should start working with Robert Garcia too.
AA: I'm sure he did tell Kelly Pavlik that he needs to start working with Robert Garcia. He told Chavez that he [Garcia] speaks Spanish and he's a better fit for them. Let me ask you something, how do you go from the best boxing performance of your life and then your promoter tries to push his agenda and say, "Break camp from the two guys who just made you have the best performance of your life and go to somebody else and start all over from scratch"? How fucking stupid are you? You know, the thing with Bob is that he really thinks people are his puppets. He's got me confused with those guys because I couldn't give two shits about Bob. You know, and I'll tell you something else Ben, I never really stuck my nose into the promotional game and never worried about what was going on in the promotional side, but apparently he feels compelled to keep sticking his nose in what goes on on my side, so now, you know what? He wants to fucking play games? He wants to be a little bitch and try to fuck with peoples' work? Well let's see who's got more loyalty and who's got more influence on a fighter. Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and I'll start making phone calls and start finding out when fighters' contracts are up over at Top Rank, and we'll see who can push who where.
BT: Wow! Apparently there seems to be quite a bit of loyalty to you because you're finding out some of things that Bob Arum has been saying and doing.
AA: I think it's just a matter of some of the people looking at what he's doing, and it just goes to show you that his agenda is all about Bob. It's not about what's best for the fighter. It's clear as to why the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight has never happened. It's always about what's best for Bob and his agenda. It doesn't matter that I've been a part of Manny's successful weight gain and being successful at all these weight classes. It doesn't matter that Julio had an amazing performance that I've heard so much praise about, not only his performance, but from boxers themselves saying how impressed they were with his boxing, his speed, his conditioning, his strategy, his new level of technique; it doesn't fucking matter. It's all about getting us moved out for whatever Bob's agenda is. That's all that matters.
BT: I don't understand why he would want to get you guys out of the picture though.
AA: You know what, Ben? I think that's your next phone call. Why don't you call up Bob and ask him why he wants to get us out of the picture. You know, him and Michael Koncz have fucking got this false sense and this delusional thought in their fucking head that they can go around saying shit and doing whatever they want and there's no repercussions about it. Listen, I might start taking this shit a little personal at some point. You would think Michael Koncz would've learned his lesson. I'll go over that with Manny and decide what reciprocity I want to take when that time comes.
BT: You and Freddie have been pretty vocal about wanting Manny to fight Floyd next. Do you think...
AA: (Cutting in) Freddie has been very vocal about Manny wanting to fight Floyd because Freddie is about wanting the best for his fighter. Let me ask you something Ben. I'm not a promoter or anything like that, but let me ask you. If Manny wants to fight Floyd and if he fights Floyd, and hypothetically he loses to Floyd, the Marquez fight is still there. If Manny fights Marquez and he loses to Marquez, the Floyd fight is gone. So how can you tell me as a promoter that the best thing to do is to fight fucking Marquez again? I mean, Freddie's obviously been in the fight game all his life, he knows how it is, and he knows that the best thing for Manny is to fight Floyd, so what the fuck is the problem? Let me ask you something, why is it that Bob can do a co-promotion with everybody else out there? He can do a co-promotion with anyone, DiBella, this guy, that guy, but he won't do a co-promotion when it comes to Manny Pacquiao fighting somebody. Whoever Manny fights, he has to fight in-house. Why is that do you think? I wonder why. I wonder when somebody is going to start scratching their head and going, "Why is it that Bob doesn't want to share a co-promotion when it comes to Manny? Sure is a lot of money."
BE SURE TO CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE REST OF THIS EXPLOSIVE INTERVIEW, AS ARIZA HAS MUCH MUCH MORE TO SAY ABOUT BOB ARUM.
[ CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THIS EXPLOSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ALEX ARIZA ]
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