MACAU – Brandon Rios doesn’t see his preparation for his welterweight fight against Manny Pacquiao being affected by the fight involving his trainer Robert Garcia and conditioning coach Alex Ariza and Pacman's trainer Freddie Roach on Wednesday.
“It’s not gonna affect me 'coz I’m not fighting Freddie Roach. I’m fighting Manny Pacquiao, so it’s not gonna affect me,” said Rios moments after the scuffle and exchange of words that took place among Roach, Garcia, and Alex Ariza, the former strength and conditioning coach of Pacquiao who’s now with the Rios camp.
“It was just an entertainment we needed before the fight,” Rios said.
They Said It!
“It was just an entertainment we needed before the fight." - Brandon Rios
Chaos erupted in a gym where the protagonists of Sunday's fight both train on Wednesday after Roach, Pacquiao's Hall of Fame trainer, approached Garcia to ask the Rios camp to leave since it had already overlapped into the training time of the Filipino fighter.
Ariza, fired as Pacquiao's strength and conditioning coach, kicked the American trainer in the chest and was later seen making fun of Roach's slurred speech owing to his battle with Parkinson's Disease.
Roach, on the other hand, was accused by Rios' camp of making some racist remarks.
Here's a video of the incident posted by SecondsOut (Warning: video contains a lot of inappropriate language):
Actually, it was not the first time Roach and Garcia got involved in a word war.
Three years ago, Roach was the butt of a bad and personal joke pulled off by Garcia, Rios, and Antonio Margarito, who was then preparing for his super-welterweight title fight against Pacquiao in Dallas, Texas.
The three were caught on video trying to mimic the way the 53-year-old Roach moves and speaks.
Both Garcia and Margarito later apologized to Roach during the press conference of the 2010 bout, which Pacquiao won by unanimous decision
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
