Ariza: “His [Pacquiao] weight is in check” – News

By Eric Thomas: For boxing fans worrying about WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s conditioning, they need not fret about it. Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza says in an article at the Manila Bulletin “His [Pacquiao] weight is in check. We didn’t do anything to change what’s been proven. We are in fact ahead of schedule in training.” Pacquiao, 31, will be facing former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey on March 13th, at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington, Texas.

Weight has never been an issue for Pacquiao in the past, and it obviously won’t be an issue this time either judging by Pacquiao’s strength coach. Pacquiao, unlike a lot of fighters, stays in shape in between fights by playing basketball daily. Pacquiao doesn’t live a sedentary lifestyle of a lot television watching and gorging on fast foods.

Pacquiao’s strength and speed will be keys for him against Clottey. He will need to get in and get out quickly making sure he doesn’t get hit with the bigger Clottey’s shots. Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, says he has a plan to beat Clottey.

Roach has said that he wants Pacquiao to work Clottey’s body to take advantage of Clottey’s high guard, which sometimes makes it difficult to land head shots against him. Clottey says that he knows how to fight southpaws and feels that he’ll do well against Pacquiao for that reason. However, Clottey’s experience against southpaws has been mostly limited to his fights against Zab Judah and Shamone Alvarez, both of which are good fighters to be sure. Yet neither of those guys have the speed and the power of Pacquiao, so Clottey’s previous experience against southpaws might be essentially useless for him.