By Edward Chaykovsky
Hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach has nothing bad to say about former champion Brandon Rios. This past Saturday night in Macau, Roach's fighter Manny Pacquiao dominated Rios over twelve rounds.
In the weeks leading up to the pay-per-view battle, there was a lot of trash talking between the two camps.
The animosity increased when Roach fired Pacquiao's strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who was later hired by Rios' trainer Robert Garcia.
Last week the two camps clashed at a gym they were sharing in Macau. During the confrontation, Roach and Ariza exchanged heated words, and later Ariza kicked Roach in the chest.
Roach, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, has forgiven Rios for making fun of his condition in 2010 (during the promotion for Pacquiao-Margarito), but says there is no forgiveness for Ariza.
"[Rios] just told me 'no hard feelings' [after the fight] and he was really nice. I have no problems with Brandon Rios. I never have. He made fun of me one time, but you know he's just a kid and I think he should have thought about that a little bit more. The thing is it's done. Everyone knows about, but then when Alex Ariza made fun of me the other day - now that's a slap in the face because he's a grown man and he was on my team when they made fun of me. He used to say that he wanted to kill those people [for making fun of me]. But now he's making fun of me and so forth. It's a little bit embarrassing. I wish I was just normal like everyone else too," Roach said in a video interview posted on BoxingScene.com.
