Days before the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios, Freddie Roach and Alex Ariza stole the spotlight as they figured in a scuffle highlighted by the latter kicking and mocking the former.
“I just wish it never happened, to be honest with you,” Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, said. “I think I was set up. They were on my time and they knew I was going to ask them to leave. They told me they weren’t leaving. Words were spoken, in which order I’m not sure.”
Robert Garcia, Roach's counterpart on the other side, and Brandon Rios had the gym from 9 to 11am, but the fighter’s interview with HBO went longer than expected. As a result, they were still there when Roach arrived in the gym.
“I thought they were disrespecting Manny by being there on his time,” Roach continued. “If they came to me and asked me for an extra half hour of course I would have said yes.”
Ariza’s camp said that Roach hurled racist remarks against them, but the American trainer claims he did nothing wrong. “I feel I have nothing to apologize for. I’m the one who got kicked, by what felt like a girl. I’m sorry to the girls here; you guys kick harder than that I’m sure,” he japed. “I’m just not like that. If you came to my gym, I have the flags of all the countries that have been there.”
Roach added that he is expecting a signature Manny Pacquiao win on Sunday. “I’m very confident of a win. The reason I say that is because of the training we had and how he handled his sparring partners,” he said. “He had no distractions whatsoever, that’s why I was upset at myself because I felt I let Manny down by letting them get under my skin. It was really something that I’m embarrassed about, but it happened.”
Asked what pushed Ariza to kick him, Roach said “I guess he’s mad because Manny fired him or I fired him. And maybe he’s not happy where he’s at.”
Ariza was formerly the strength and conditioning coach of Pacquiao, until Roach let him go with Pacquiao's blessing.
After Pacquiao heard about the incident, he quickly talked to his long-time trainer. “Manny came to me and just shook his head. He told me to be calm, don’t let his happen again. Manny knows how to calm me down, he’s a very good guy and I respect him. He told me not to do this again and I won’t,” Roach said.
“If they walk by me and have something to say, I’m not going to say anything back because it’s really not worth it.” - AMD, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
