Angel Heredia won’t be working with Mayweather for Pacquiao fight

By Boxing News - 03/22/2015 - Comments

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By Chris Williams: To clear up a lot of rumors that have been circulating around about Floyd Mayweather Jr working with strength and conditioning coach Angel Heredia, these are totally untrue, according to Heredia. He already cleared up the rumors this week, saying that he won’t be working with Mayweather to get him ready for his May 2nd fight against Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

By Heredia saying that he’s not working with Mayweather, it should clear up the confusion with most of the boxing fans, but unfortunately there will likely be some people who will continue to believe that Mayweather is working with Heredia no matter what he says.

Instead of working with Heredia, Mayweather is using former Pacquiao strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza as his strength coach for the Pacquiao fight. Mayweather obviously wasn’t going to hire two strength coaches for the Pacquiao fight, because then the two would be stepping on each other’s toes.

You know the old saying ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth.’ It would be like that with Ariza and Heredia if they were both working with Mayweather for this fight. It would be totally unneeded and a waste of Mayweather and their time.

“I don’t want to take any credit and I don’t want to be penalized for any result or any outcome that might happen, before or after the fight, when I’m not involved and I’m not working with Floyd,” Heredia said via Fighthype.com. “If he wanted to do it [work with me], it’s too late already. It [the fight] is already four weeks away. I’m not going to take a chance at that.”

Mayweather is developing punching power with the help of Ariza. Mayweather’s trainer Jeff Mayweather says that Mayweather is already punching more power, and whipping his sparring parters one after another. He recently did a number on former two division world champion Zab Judah in working him over in a sparring session.

Just what Mayweather is capable of accomplishing in the Pacquiao fight with his new found power is the big question. We just don’t know yet. But if Mayweather does increase his punching power by 20-25 percent, he’s going to be a very dangerous puncher.

I don’t think Mayweather would turn into a Miguel Cotto type of puncher, but it’s quite possible that his power could be increase to the level of Marcos Maidana and Kell Brook.

If you give Mayweather their kind of power, he’s going to be very dangerous for Pacquiao, because he’ll be hitting him so frequently. I don’t know how often Maidana and Brook would be able to land in a fight against Pacquiao, but I do think Mayweather will be hitting Pacquiao An awful loit in this fight on May 2nd. If Mayweather improves his punching power by one quarter, he’s going to be a real problem for the 36-year-old Pacquiao.

The Filipino star may find that he’s got a tiger by the tail when he gets in there with Mayweather, and you don’t want to grab a tiger by his tail, because he’ll turn and maul you.

The difference “is subtle, but it’s a major difference for Floyd because he’s never done it,” Jeff Mayweather said to Mlive.com. “The only thing I can attribute it to is his own strength, and having a real strength trainer for the first time. Originally, I think Floyd got him (Ariza) just to mess with Manny’s mind. But he knows Manny’s history and his flaws and everything else.”

The addition of Ariza to Mayweather’s team is working out really well for Mayweather. It’s a real find for Mayweather to have been able to add a valuable strength coach like Ariza.

It’s still unbelievable that Pacquiao let Ariza go after helped bring huge success to Pacquiao in developing his punching power and helping him gain weight. Pacquiao turned into a monstrous puncher when he was working with Ariza. That’s why it’s so hard to believe that he let him go. But that’s Pacquiao’s loss and Mayweather’s good fortune.

The addition of Ariza to Mayweather’s team could turn out to be the equivalent of him finding Ponce De Leon’s fountain of youth. If Ariza can develop Mayweather’s punching power, he can turn on a missing lever to Mayweather’s game, and make him incredibly dangerous for anyone in the division



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