Ariza making sure Mayweather doesn’t over-train for Pacquiao fight

By Boxing News - 04/21/2015 - Comments

Floyd Mayweather Work Out for the PressBy Chris Williams: Strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza is keeping a close eye on his fighter Floyd Mayweather Jr. to make sure he doesn’t over-train for his big fight against Manny Pacquiao in 11 days from now on May 2nd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ariza has been working with Mayweather to build up his strength and conditioning to bring him to peak condition so that he can easily defeat the 36-year-old Pacquiao on May 2nd.

Ariza wants Mayweather to be so strong and in such good shape that he turns the fight into a mismatch instead of merely a competitive bout. The fight has more meaning than that for Ariza, although he would never admit it. This is Ariza’s chance to show that Pacquiao and his trainer Freddie Roach were wrong in letting him go as their strength coach after he tirelessly helped Pacquiao rise up the weights to become briefly a fierce knockout puncher at 147.

Mayweather is in “very good shape and we are now on maintaining mode and won’t push it. WE don’t want to over train,” Ariza said via Philboxing.com. Mayweather’s condition “is great and Floyd looks phenomenal.”

Mayweather is reportedly taking a break from sparring for several days to keep him strong and fresh for the fight. They’re not going to work him to the bone for this fight because they know what they’re doing, and they don’t want him dragging himself into the ring on May 2nd to fight Pacquiao under those conditions. They realize that for Mayweather to be as strong as he can be, he’s going to need to back off from the conditioning and sparring before the week before the fight.
Ariza had this to say about Pacqiao: “Manny has always looked good in the gym but he’s doing the same things over and over again. Nothing different.”

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Well, it’s the same trainer that he’s had for years and years in still being trained by Freddie Roach instead of looking for new guy that can teach him new things. You can only imagine how much better Pacquiao would be if he had the likes of Virgil Hunter, Robert Garcia or Floyd Mayweather Sr. training him instead of Roach. Those guys would help Pacquiao with his leaky defense and stop him from using that same tired in and out attack that he’s been since he first turned pro 20 years ago. Roach hasn’t done much to trainer Pacquiao’s fighting style that he had from the very start of his career.

The real difference in this fight could be the punching power that Mayweather will be showing to the boxing world. Ariza has been working hard on developing Mayweather’s strength, and he’s looking a lot stronger than he has in the past, and he reportedly has been pounding on his talented sparring partners. It wouldn’t be surprising if we see Mayweather come out with an increase of 25% in his punching power for this fight thanks to the hard work that Ariza has put in with him.



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