Alex Ariza: record, next fight and profile →
With the news that Victor Conte was working with Zab Judah for his Saturday showdown with Amir Khan, I received an invitation to meet the SNAC president at his headquarters in San Carlos, Calif.
LAS VEGAS, NV - WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan is getting in some final training at the IBA gym. Khan prepares for Saturday's unification against IBF champion Zab Judah at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. During some work with the pads, Khan's trainer Freddie Roach appears to have not been quick enough and got checked on the chin. Not first time or the last time, that Roach has been caught. The trainer has said that his other fast-handed boxer, Manny Pacquiao, caught him a few times over the years.
Alex Ariza, the strength and conditioning coach of WBA 140-pound champion Amir Khan, took heavy offense when he was informed of the recent comments that were made by trainer Roger Mayweather. During a recent interview with BoxingScene.com's Chris Robinson, Mayweather accused Khan of being on steroids. For several years, the trainer of Floyd Mayweather Jr. has made the same claims about Manny Pacquiao. Both Khan and Pacquiao are handled by Ariza and trainer Freddie Roach.
After a one-fight hiatus, strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza has come back to Amir Khan’s corner in time for the WBA junior welterweight champion’s unification bout with IBF holder Zab Judah this Saturday.
WBC lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez’s so-called tune-up ten round bout against former WBA Interim champion Likar Ramos of Colombia turned out to be a farce with Marquez scoring a knockout in 47 seconds of the very first round in Cancun, Mexico.
WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan has reunited with strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza of the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California. Ariza was not in the corner of Khan (25-1, 17 knockouts) for last month's sixth-round, technical decision victory over Irish southpaw Paul McCloskey (22-1, 12 KOs). Until then, Ariza had worked alongside trainer Freddie Roach with Khan for six fights, having joined Khan following his first-round knockout loss to Breidis Prescott in September of 2008, after which Khan went 6-0, with four knockouts. A former Olympic silver medalist, Khan was trained by Michael Vale for McCloskey after having removed Ariza following December's unanimous decision victory over then-interim WBO junior welteweight belt-holder, Marcos Rene Maidana (30-2, 27 KOs).
By Chris Robinson - On Saturday, WBA super lightweight champion Amir Khan announced to his 181,000 Twitter followers that he has been working with his previous strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, whom he had a slight falling out with after his December victory over Marcos Maidana at the Mandalay Bay. Khan noted that he and the Colombian will commence working this Monday at 6 in the morning in preparation for his upcoming fight in July against an yet-to-be-determined foe. In April Khan pulled out a six-round technical nod over Ireland's Paul McCloskey in his native England, a fight in which he looked far from stellar, and many of his supporters had been hoping for a reunion with Ariza. The two seemed to work well with one another but they parted ways shortly after the Maidana fight, with Ariza claiming he hadn't gotten paid for his services and even accusing members of the Bolton fighter's camp of breaking into his hotel room in order to steal his contract. A few weeks ago, the two sides met to begin discussions about possibly repairing their working relationship. During an interview with BoxingScene.com, Khan was very clear that he was interested in a positive solution to have Ariza return to the corner. "My conditioning was great for the Maidana fight. Everyone knows that Alex is a great conditioning coach. I mean, look at Manny Pacquiao and myself. But there are a few things that we have to get ironed out. I think that it would be good if we could get things ironed out," said Khan. While Ariza didn't want to open up too much about another working relationship with Khan due to legal purposes, he couldn't hide his excitement towards the proposition. "I like his intensity," Ariza told me when asked for his favorite traits of Khan. "His openness, his willingness to try new things. Everybody is now doing things a little bit differently. The things you do sometimes can be very taxing and a lot of the guys just don't make it. But he was one of the guys who was up every day and I could tell that some of the days he just wasn't digging it, he was still doing it and putting 100% into it." In the Maidana fight Khan started fast by scoring a first round knockdown off of a body shot yet had to hold of the surging Argentinean down the stretch of the fight. In the tenth round Khan could be seen absorbing some unearthly power shots from Maidana, yet he found a way to weather the storm and hold on for a tight unanimous decision verdict.
WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan confirmed his reunion with strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza of the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, California. Ariza was not in the corner of Khan (25-1, 17 knockouts) for last month's sixth-round, technical decision victory over Irish southpaw Paul McCloskey (22-1, 12 KOs).
An earlier article by my colleague Ronnie Nathanielsz surprised me as well-known conditioning coach Alex Ariza gave his thoughts on the troubled Oscar De La Hoya, who recently checked himself into a rehab clinic according to TMZ.com. Ariza showed his sympathy towards the former multi-division champion and even suggested that if he were to get his spirits back that a possible fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. would make sense down the road.
“The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya is undergoing rehabilitation for “substance abuse” in a California facility and according to the website TMZ he did so voluntarily.