MANILA, Philippines—Conditioning expert Alex Ariza lauded Manny Pacquiao’s speed and power, but vowed Tuesday to toughen up the body of the pound-for-pound king.
Pacquiao’s “speed and power are there but the body is not there,” said Ariza, who added that the Filipino icon needs to have a “denser, stronger, harder body like ebony” for his battle with Antonio Margarito at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium on Nov. 13.
Ariza told the Inquirer he wants Pacquiao to be in even tougher shape than he was for the fight against Miguel Cotto last December which Pacquiao won by a 12th round TKO to grab the WBO welterweight title.
After watching Pacquiao train at the Johnny Elorde gym in Quezon City, Ariza said “getting his body back to where it was before is not a problem because the body has memories and knows where it has been before.
“But for somebody like Margarito it has to be a bigger, denser harder body that has to be able to withstand punishment,” added the conditioning coach.
Ariza said if Pacquiao “gets into that mood where he wants to sit there and bang and let Margarito punch on him to mentally break him, we need to come up with some different things, some different techniques and the strength part to build a denser core and denser body without having to affect any of his speed.”
Meanwhile, Ariza said he is willing to help Filipino athletes train for the Asian Games and other international competitions but will need to work around his schedule since he will be busy with Pacquiao’s preparations.
Ariza said the most likely scenario is to conduct a seminar where he could “go over and see what the basic nutrition and exercise programs are.”
“We can go over things although it’s hard to say without knowing what they did,” Ariza said. “But in the nutrition part, with six to seven weeks left you can make vast differences in an athlete’s performance.”
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