"Here's the thing, I'd like to train heavier. Coming in heavier is not really necessary. Coming in at 145, you know, is fine with me; or if he wants to come in at 146. As long as we're training between 151 and 153 and we're staying like that all the way up until the week of the fight, then I'm happy...It helps him absorb, I would say, in the event that it comes to one of those situations where you have to withstand harder, bigger shots. Cotto, for me, has always been the blueprint. We made Manny so densely strong and muscular that no matter what Cotto hit him with, it just wasn't having the effect that I think everybody thought it was gonna have. If I can get him to that again, like I said 153 or 151, and then come down to 145 or 146, then I'm so happy," stated strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who gave us an update on how training is going for pound-for-pound champion Manny Pacquiao as he prepares for his upcoming May 7th showdown with "Sugar" Shane Mosley. Check out what else he had to say.
BT: Hey Alex. How's everything going in training camp so far?
AA: Man, when people ask me that, I hate saying that it's going so well because I don't want to jinx it, you know? I don't think we've had a training camp like this since Cotto. If anything, it's almost better than Cotto.
BT: Would you say there are fewer distractions for this camp or has it pretty much been the usual amount?
AA: I think mainly the same. It's just that Manny, when he was fighting Margarito, he was a new Congressman. Manny, his personality is to never let anything get the better of him, so I think he didn't realize that he had to study maybe as hard as he had to. I don't know that much about politics, so I don't know what you have to do to prepare or study to lead or become versed in things, but I think that took up most of his time and his energy and it just took a little away from boxing. I think now, he's got it down and he knows how to manage that time. On top of that, and more importantly, is that he's taking Shane seriously.
BT: This is probably one of the first times that I've seen just about everything in Manny's camp running so smoothly. Is there any concern that things are going just a little bit too smoothly.
AA: Yeah, always man, always, but, you know, I remember the night of the fight after he fought Margarito, we were in his room and he could barely move. You know, he took a lot of shots and I just said, "Please, Manny, please let's just go back to normal. Let's not do this again." He said, "I promise, bro, we'll do things different." It might just be that. We were in bad shape after that fight, you know?
BT: How's everything been going with Fight Camp 360?
AA: It's a little different, you know? The guys at HBO have been with us for so long and they just kind of know our routine. They just have more experience with us. I didn't get a chance to see the show, but I heard it was okay.
BT: Yeah, I know Manny has a pretty hectic schedule and you guys run a tight ship over there, so I was wondering if they were getting in the way at all.
AA: It's different, for sure. I mean, HBO has us down to a science, but, you know, even if they were in the way, it boils down to how the show comes out, so we'll just have to see.
BT: There were a couple of things you weren't too happy about during camp for the Margarito fight. What exactly would you say is different about this camp compared to that one?
AA: Manny has completely changed his mental approach to the fight. Even in the Cotto fight, I was the one who was saying, "Okay, this is track day. This is plyometric day." Now Manny's saying, "Okay, this is how I want to do it." If it makes sense, I don't have any problem with it; I won't make any changes. I'm going, "Okay, if that's how you feel you want to do it, that's fine with me." It looks good and it's working that way, so he's been doing that. He's been kinda saying, "Hey, I want to do this on this day and this on this day because of how I feel." And I'm like, "Okay, if that's the way you feel." It's the first time that I'm not saying, "Hey, you know what tomorrow is. Tomorrow is track work, so get to bed early." He already knows and he's kind of taking charge and saying, "Hey, this is what I want to do. Can we switch this to this day?" That just tells me he's taking Shane very, very seriously.
BT: I was actually wondering about that. When you work with him, I didn't know if it was a case where you had his routine already set in stone or if he had more say in what he did.
AA: Actually, I've always done it like that in the past, but, you know, we've been together for 3 1/2 years now, so he kind of knows. He knows the days when he feels better and stronger. He told me today, he says, "I have to get a little bit bigger. I feel the speed is there; everything is there, but I want my body to fill in." I showed him a picture of how his body looked when we fought Margarito and I go, "You know, it's been awhile since we looked like this." So he says, "Yeah, yeah, I know what I want to do." We laid it out over dinner tonight. It looks good to me, so hopefully over these next three weeks, we'll see that body start changing again.
BT: Yeah, I remember for the Margarito fight, you were wanting him to come in a little bit heavier than he actually did. Shane's a big dude too.
AA: Yeah!
BT: So do you prefer for him to come in a little heavier for this fight as well?
AA: Here's the thing, I'd like to train heavier. Coming in heavier is not really necessary. Coming in at 145, you know, is fine with me; or if he wants to come in at 146. As long as we're training between 151 and 153 and we're staying like that all the way up until the week of the fight, then I'm happy.
BT: Does training heavy like that help him handle the physical size of the bigger guys a little bit better?
AA: It helps him absorb, I would say, in the event that it comes to one of those situations where you have to withstand harder, bigger shots. Cotto, for me, has always been the blueprint. We made Manny so densely strong and muscular that no matter what Cotto hit him with, it just wasn't having the effect that I think everybody thought it was gonna have. If I can get him to that again, like I said 153 or 151, and then come down to 145 or 146, then I'm so happy because losing that extra weight, his speed will go up. Obviously, everybody knows that's Manny's asset, so losing those 7 pounds before the fight for the weigh-in and then coming in at that weight is big for us.
BT: Shane might be one of the fastest bigger guys that Manny has faced. How difficult is it to manage the size versus the speed factor when getting prepared for the fight?
AA: Yeah, for sure. I mean, it is hard. It's a double-edge sword. If you get bigger, you're going to sacrifice something. If you want to get faster, you're going to sacrifice something. You can't be fast and have tremendous power and you can't have tremendous power and still be as fast. You just gotta watch closely and when you see you're starting to lose a step, you know, make those adjustments, get right back to where you were, and then start going forward.
BT: Well, it looks like you've got it down to a science because Manny doesn't look like he's lost any speed as he's moved up in weight.
AA: No, not yet; knock on wood.
BT: I've been staying updated on Manny's training through all of the exclusive videos on MPBoxing.com and as usual, he looks like he's training like a beast. Is it difficult to get him to scale back from going full speed ahead all the time?
AA: It is because sometimes, you know how it's like when you're training and some days, you feel really good and that's when you want to just push it. On those days, that's when I want him to save it because I want tomorrow to be the same. I have to get him to understand that just because you feel like a million dollars today, you know, let's just save a little bit. For Manny, feeling like a million dollars is just going until he just passes out and then going again five hours later the same way. So it's like, this is where we have to stop; we have to save a little bit and get ready for the next day. You have to always remember there's still tomorrow and the next day and the next day. If I can get him to just kind of manage that and then one night, on a Saturday night, just let it loose; man, I think he can be unbeatable.
BT: He already seems like he's unbeatable (laughing).
AA: Yeah.
BT: Now, you've got a blog that you're updating with information about some of the training and nutrition you're giving Manny, right?
AA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We thought that might be a good thing. I know there's so many questions out there. When you start leaving the door open to speculation, people start going in the wrong direction, so I figure, hey, let's just start giving something back to the people and let them get some insight. Manny's gonna maybe fight six more times so it's not like some big secret we want to keep in the vault anymore.
BT: I think that's a good idea because not only fans, but other young, up-and-coming fighters are going to be able to see the kinds of things you're doing with Manny and learn from it.
AA: Oh, for sure. I think sometimes we don't see those great fights because these guys do everything wrong the week of the fight and they leave everything out of the ring trying to make weight. We'd probably see some phenomenal fights if we can just get some really smart people in there handling that part of it and let these guys get in the ring 100% and ready to rock and roll. You'd see completely different fights.
BT: For sure. Well I've kept you long enough, man. Before I let you go, is there anything else you want to say in closing?
AA: Just let people know that I'm going to be writing a blog at MPBoxing.com every day touching on something. I'm always open to suggestions. If people want to talk about something else, if I don't know it, I'll find out and I'll make sure I give them the most information I can. My blog is available now at mpboxing.com and I'll be working on it every night. I'll definitely try to get to everybody's questions.
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