by Ronnie Nathanielsz
Strength and conditioning guru Alex Ariza is back training Julio Cesar Chavez Jr for his massive showdown against pound for pound No. 3 Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas on September 15.
Chavez Jr. puts his World Boxing Council middleweight title on the line against the Diamond beltholder Martinez.
WBC president Don Jose Sulaiman said this bout “will be one of the best in history just like the ones between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran or Julio Cesar Chavez and Hector ‘Macho’ Camacho.”
Sulaiman said “This bout will be a classic. I’m in nobody’s side despite mt close relationship with both fighters. We will be witnesses of a great battle between two of the best current boxers.”
Executive secretary Mauricio Sulaiman said “this will be a great match between the best current boxers that will be won by the fighter who left the talking and focuses on winning the fight.”
In an overseas telephone conversation with BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard from Toluca in Mexico, Ariza said he has been working with Chavez Jr for the past week in the mountains and that Chavez Jr had “wanted to get back to doing some of the old things that we had done because he had some leg problems in the last camp. He says this fight is obviously going to be a fight of conditioning and he’s got to be able to fight three minutes of every round because he knows Martinez is obviously a very active fighter.”
Ariza believes that the fight against Martinez “is going to take him (Chavez Jr) up there with Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr and he’s going to be one of the top three names in boxing.”
Ariza revealed he feels that “its sometimes good when a fighter takes a fight away from me because when they come back there is more confidence in the program and everything that I do. I think it was a good, healthy temporary separation.”
The strength and conditioning coach who also works with Manny Pacquiao said “people thought before that Chavez was relentless and strong, they haven’t seen anything yet.”