By Osman Rodriguez
Former chamion Amir Khan has denied some of the past statements that were made by his former strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza. It was revealed last month that Khan and Ariza parted ways, with Khan hiring conditioning coach Ruben Tabares.
In the month of April, Ariza left the Philippines, where he and trainer Freddie Roach were working with Khan and WBO 147-pound champion Manny Pacquiao. Ariza headed back to America to help prepare middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for his upcoming fight with Andy Lee on June 16th.
Khan had been training for a rematch with Lamont Peterson, which was scheduled for May 19th and later canceled. Pacquiao was training for this Saturday's fight with Timothy Bradley.
Roach, who trains both Pacquiao and Khan, had no idea Ariza was leaving. There is now tension between Roach and Ariza and their internal rift has been a clear focus on HBO's ongoing 24/7 Pacquiao-Bradley reality series. Although Pacquiao retained the services of Ariza and gave him permission to leave his camp and help Chavez, Khan claims that he never gave Ariza permission and that forced him to hire a new conditioning coach. Ariza had claimed that both Pacquiao and Khan gave him the green light to work with Chavez.
“Alex left my camp in the middle. [Alex said] Manny said it was okay to leave - but I didn’t - [and] I was his number two fighter. My new strength coach is down to earth. He doesn’t want his name mentioned [in the press]," Khan said.
