By Chris Williams: According to Michael Marley at examiner.com, trainer Freddie Roach isn’t pleased with working side by side with strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza while working with Manny Pacquiao. Marley is saying that Roach will ask Pacquiao to choose between him or Ariza.

It’s hard to tell why Roach no longer wants to work with Ariza, because Ariza seems to have done his job well in recent years in getting Pacquiao ready for fights. As far as I can tell the only thing that Ariza needs improvement on is keeping his mouth closed, because he sometimes is a little blunt with some of his comments to the media.

But as far as training Pacquiao goes, I think he’s probably done all he can do for the guy. The leg cramp issues that Pacquiao has been suffering as of late in his fights seems to be an age-related problem that is beyond what Ariza can do for the Filipino. I don’t see why Roach can’t continue to work alongside Ariza. I know it could be hard because of how popular Ariza has become in the media. At times he seems to be overshadowing Roach, but that’s a good thing, right? You can’t have a major player that doesn’t have a voice, especially with the important job that Ariza has.

If Roach is serious about wanting Pacquiao to choose between him and Ariza, my advice is for Pacquiao to simply dump both of them and start with a clean slate. Pacquiao would do well to get with trainer Nacho Beristain and then use the strength and conditioning coach that Juan Manuel Marquez used to get ready for his third fight with Pacquiao last November. That guy did a great job with Marquez, and I think he’s at least as good as Ariza. Pacquiao would probably be better off without the drama that has now enveloped the Wild Card gym. It would be better just to walk away from the poisonous drama that surrounds that place and start over. It might even make Pacquiao a younger fighter.