I'm sure by now you've seen
or heard about the brouhaha that took place between the camps of Manny Pacquiao and
Brandon Rios on Tuesday that centered around a front kick launched by Alex Ariza
toward Freddie Roach (just in case you haven't, our own Radio Rahim was live on
the scene with footage: (Click play on video player embedded to the left).
All I can say is: none of
this surprises me. There's no doubt that Roach was itching for a confrontation
and understandably has lingering ill will toward Robert Garcia that stems from
his camp and Antonio Margarito mocking his Parkinson's Disease back in 2010.
But really what took place between Roach and his former
strength-and-conditioning coach could be seen coming from a mile away. Bottom
line, these guys loathe each other and I'm guessing it's the first time they've
been in the same room since they parted ways.
I can vividly recall during
the last few Pacquiao camps when Ariza would walk into the Wild Card Boxing
Club and there would immediately be a palpable tension. Ariza would immediately
put his stuff down near the ring and usually sit near the fall wall of the gym
near the double-end and speed bags and wait for Manny to arrive. Freddie and
everyone in the gym would basically keep their distance from him. There was
very little interaction until Mr. Pacquiao would come through those doors.
Once training started,
everyone would do their respective jobs but there was very little in the
way of communication between the two. Think of parents on the verge of a
divorce who keep the peace on behalf of the children. Now, that the union is
broken up, all niceties are thrown out the window.
Let's be honest; nobody came
out of this looking good (admittedly, it was amusing nonetheless). Viewing this
cynically (which is part of our jobs, I guess), perhaps this was all engineered
- if not planned - by Top Rank. Seriously, there is only one gym in this city
for both camps to use? They couldn't set up a ballroom in one of the hotels to
use as a makeshift workout area for one of the fighters?
Oh, that dastardly Bob Arum,
he's good. He's really, really good (at
selling).
RADIO RAHIM RIDES AGAIN
As Maxboxing’s very own
video vanguard, Radio Rahim makes his way toward Macao to cover the goings-on
leading up to and including Pacquiao-Rios, please check out his YouTube preview
here:
TNR
Here's the latest edition of
“The Next Round” with Gabe Montoya and Yours Truly (with a full preview of
Pacquiao-Rios and a look back at Andre Ward's return to the ring):
FINAL FLURRIES
The Andre Ward-Edwin Rodriguez
fight on HBO averaged 1.029 million viewers and peaked at 1.2 million, which,
considering the fact that HBO paid over $3 million for that broadcast, is
downright mediocre...I got a press release announcing the return of Jeff “Left
Hook” Lacy on November 30th in Baton Rouge. Good grief...It was
officially announced that on December 13th from the Fantasy Springs
Casino, “Golden Boy Live” on Fox Sports 1 will have Josesito Lopez facing Mike
Arnaoutis and Francisco Vargas taking on Jerry Belmontes...So that story
involving Jameis Winston isn't going away gently into the night; is it?...So
Prince Fielder's homecoming to Detroit was a bit short-lived, huh?...If Jon
Taffer of “Bar Rescue” ran for public office, I'd vote for the man...
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