By: Vitali Shaposhnikov
In the midst of all the drama that has lately taken place surrounding Alex Ariza and camp Pacquiao, it seems as though Freddie Roach just took his anger a step further.
Apparently, Ariza will not be in Manny Pacquiao’s corner during his bout against Timothy Bradley this coming Saturday, but not because Ariza will be busy elsewhere, but because Freddie Roach will not sign him up: “I said some things on 24/7 last night that Alex might not like. If he has something to say to me about it, he'll say it. But I won't let it affect my fighter, and I know what's important here, and that's the focus of Manny Pacquiao. … Manny likes him and wants him on board, so that's the way it is. Alex will be there until the fight, and once we get to the fight and I put down my four corner men, he won't be on the list," stated roach in a recent interview. (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/roach-won-t-let-ariza-pacquiao-corner-against-055500044--box.html)
It seems as though the war between Ariza and Roach is not only apparent on television, but is actually real and gaining momentum. Not having Ariza in Pacquiao’s corner is not the end of the world, but Ariza has always been a huge part of the team, and not having him there might cause another kind of damage.
Pacquiao does indeed like Ariza and what he has done for Manny in his numerous preparatory camps. While all corner-men have their jobs, none know how to deal with in-fight injuries, major and minor. Strains happen all the time, and neither Roach nor anyone else in that corner will have any clue of what to do in that one minute of available time.
I think that if Roach really cared about Manny’s well being as well as his victory, he should let Ariza be a part of the team during the fight, as he has been throughout many of Pacquiao’s tremendous accomplishments. My take on this, is don’t fix that which is not broken.
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