By Keith Idec
While Freddie Roach, Robert Garcia and Alex Ariza all obviously have made Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Brandon Rios extremely personal, Pacquiao called for civility and professionalism as the pay-per-view event approaches.
Without mentioning it specifically, a typically polite Pacquiao acknowledged the juvenile gym skirmish between Roach, Garcia and Ariza during the final news conference for Saturday’s fight Wednesday in Macau, China (HBO Pay-Per-View; $69.95 in HD; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT). Footage from the trainers’ encounter went viral on the Internet Tuesday night and clearly intensified interest in the 12-round welterweight bout.
Nevertheless, Pacquiao despises such drama and the Filipino icon denounced the controversial confrontation that has received so much attention.
“You know, all I can say is every team prepared [for] this fight,” Pacquiao said. “My team, we prepared for this fight. And his team prepared for this fight. Let everybody finish in the ring and, what do we call this? There’s no trash talk before the fight. It’s not a good example to all the people who are admiring boxing. To me, all I can say is, anyone who has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgives you.
“All I can say is this is a sport, nothing personal. We’re doing our job in the ring and then, after that, you know, nothing personal. This is our job, to perform and to entertain the people.”
Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KOs) and Rios (31-1-1, 23 KOs) respected one another during and after Wednesday’s news conference, as they’ve done throughout a promotion that included an extensive press tour over the summer. Rios didn’t even mention the slur-filled argument between Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, Garcia, Rios’ trainer, and Ariza, Rios’ strength and conditioning coach, when it was his turn to speak Wednesday.
Rios, of Oxnard, Calif., also stayed out of the dispute while it occurred at a Macau gym both boxers are using this week. The former WBA lightweight champion never left the nearby exercise machine he was using when Roach approached Garcia about overlapping training schedules, which incited an emotional disagreement that included numerous tasteless insults and Ariza, Pacquiao’s former strength and conditioning coach, kicking Roach.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
