A scuffle breaks out between the coaching staffs of Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios when Freddie Roach approached Pacquiao’s former conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who is now with Rios, at the fighters’ training camp in Macau. PHOTO FROM TOP RANK twitter account
MANILA, Philippines – Four days before the much-awaited ring return of Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao against Mexican-American Brandon Rios at the Venetian in Macau in a must-see welterweight bout, a pre-fight drama unfolded between the two fighters’ trainers at the gym Wednesday.
Reports of an altercation between the fighters’ camps flooded social networking sites and not long after, raw footage of the scuffle involving Pacquiao’s head trainer Freddie Roach and Rios’ trainer Robert Garcia and now strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza had surfaced as well.
The 12-minute video posted on Youtube showed Hall-of-Fame trainer Roach and Garcia in a verbal confrontation after Roach as Yahoo! Sports expert Kevin Iole wrote in his story as recalled by the witnesses “made a beeline to Garcia and demanded him to leave.”
The heated and explicit exchange between the two trainers went on before Ariza, who was fired from the Pacquiao camp before getting hired at the other side, entered the frame and got into it as well.
Roach and Ariza then went on and talked smack at one another before the ex-Team Pacquiao member appeared to deliver the first blow to Roach, who appeared to be coming at Ariza, as seen on the video.
Roach would later claim that Ariza “kicked him in the chest” and that Garcia told him to “(explicit) himself” as he asked Garcia to leave the gym after their time had elapsed and that it was Pacuiao’s turn to train.
Roach also added in the video that he called the police for assault after taking a hit from Ariza.
Garcia, who was then asked for his side of the story, said he wouldn’t have any problems had Roach just decided to wait for his turn.
Garcia, who also trains Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire, seemed shocked as he heard Roach’s claims and instead accused his counterpart of starting out the fight and for calling him “a piece of (explicit).”
Ariza, who also mocked Roach’s stuttering speech due to his Parkinson’s disease, on the other hand, said that Roach “started yelling at me for no reason” and that it was Roach who “got physical and he came out and he was going to hit Robert (Garcia).”
Ariza, who said that he kicked Roach to defend himself, continued: “I told him this isn’t Wild Card. You don’t call the shots here and then he came at me and cocked his fist back and yeah he got a (explicit) kick in the chest.”
Both camps meet again Thursday for the bout’s final press conference.
Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KOs) looks to get back at boxing’s pedestal nearly a year after his brutal knockout loss to rival Juan Manuel Marquez while the 27-year-old Rios (31-1-1, 23 KOs) eyes to cement his place as one of the sport’s top stars today as both “Clash in Cotai” on Sunday.
Source: SecondsOut
Originally posted at 12:36 p.m. | November 20, 2013
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