By Ronnie Nathanielsz
STRENGTH and conditioning guru Alex Ariza yesterday claimed that Manny Pacquiao’s planned rematch with Timothy Bradley will not take place in November.
Instead, it will be Pacquiao against Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in a fourth encounter following the hugely controversial majority decision win by the Filipino ring icon in their third fight.
Ariza told BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard that a rematch with Bradley will take place after the fourth fight with Marquez.
On Saturday, Bradley scored a split decision win over Pacquiao, a verdict that was universally condemned by boxing experts and plain fans alike.
The strength guru, who has a running feud with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, was allegedly prevented from entering the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas to train Julio Cesar Chavez.
He was also not allowed to travel on the plane to Texas for the World Boxing Council middleweight title defense of Chavez in Texas on June 16.
At the same time, he said there were nearly 3,000 empty seats at the MGM Grand for the Bradley fight and he expects the pay-per-view numbers to be low, which, he said, means that negotiations for a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. have been badly hurt and he blames Arum for this.
“How can you go to Mayweather and ask him for a 50-50 revenue split?” Ariza asked.
The outspoken strength and conditioning coach blasted the fact that giant cards were prepared announcing a Pacquiao-Bradley rematch on Nov. 10, which was being held up by a Top Rank official standing behind Bradley during their pre-fight press conference last Wednesday.
He charged: “They (Top Rank) did nothing to protect Manny.”
Ariza claimed that he and Pacquiao plan to watch the tape of the Bradley fight in Los Angeles, even as he said the Fighter of the Decade told him: “We need to work on my power and my strength again.”
