IN a lengthy, wide-ranging exclusive interview last week, well-known strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza revealed that he and Floyd Mayweather Jr. are “planning to do something in the Philippines” as a way of paying back for the benefits they received.
Ariza worked with eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao for six years before he was eased out by trainer Freddie Roach, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz and eventually joined Mayweather, who defeated the Filipino ring icon in their May 2 “Fight of the Century.”
The conditioning coach revealed the plan to set up The Best Ever in Sports Recovery Program for some of the Filipino athletes.
“Mayweather is now retired, and has respect for Manny, absolutely. He told me he (Floyd) earned almost half-a-billion dollars fighting Manny Pacquiao, ‘I need to give something back,’” Ariza said.
In an obvious dig at Arum, Ariza claimed that the Top Rank promoter “made hundreds of millions of dollars off Manny, but I don’t think he has given back 50 cents, unlike Floyd whose plan of establishing the TBE Sports Recovery Program is his way of giving something back.”
He described Mayweather, whose top cameraman was formerly with Pacquiao and now works for Floyd, along with a Filipino accountant and some staff members, as “a really good person, generous and a good man inside.”