Alex Ariza: Tax issue will not distract Manny Pacquiao – Boxing News
Alex Ariza, Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach, believes that the recent tax controversy surrounding the Filipino champion will not affect his fights. Manny Pacquiao has started training for his big match against unbeaten American fighter Timothy
Bradley on June 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The match will have Manny’s WBO welterweight title on the line, therefore it is a must for Pacquiao to make sure he does not give in.
When asked about Manny’s condition and training after their recent gym session at the Metro Manila gym, Alex iterated, “Manny is used to distractions and stuff like that.” Manny is training with Amir Khan, the former unified WBA and IBF super lightweight
champion. Amir is preparing for his rematch with Lamont Peterson which will be held on May 19 at the Mandalay Bay Resort. The match will be a title rematch for Khan, whereas it will Peterson’s first ever title defense.
When asked about the dark clouds of controversies that have surrounded the WBO welterweight champion, Ariza added, “(Pacquiao) is just tying up some loose ends, he wants to get everything out of the way as far as whatever is going on here in the Philippines
business-wise. He doesn't want to be bouncing back and forth. As soon as he gets that settled, he's going to get right into it. We still got a lot of time. He's got his newfound faith and the way he's approached religion, he's left a lot of the other stuff
behind. I always think that's a good thing. Hopefully that will give him more time with me and we can get back to working on some of the old workouts we used to do.”
Even though Ariza believes all the controversies are not really hurting Pacquiao, the latter is completely of a different opinion. In his last interview, Pacquiao said that all these issues have made it harder for him to train well. He added that he is unable
to concentrate on his training but he definitely is trying his best.
The match will be the biggest one of Bradley’s career and for Pacquiao too. If Pacquiao loses, he will not only lose his titles but also his reputation.
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