As expected, world-class strength & conditioning coach Alex Ariza has left Manny Pacquiao's training camp early to head back to the United States to begin working with WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. The news should come as no surprise to FightHype readers, as Ariza previously informed us that he would be returning in April to begin training camp with Chavez Jr. "I'll be back the third week of April. Chavez will be starting camp shortly after that. He's doing a 10-week camp. He'll be starting training a little bit early," Ariza commented in an interview last month.
In fact, according to Ariza, the news shouldn't come as a suprise to anyone, as his plans were already discussed with all the fighters he's working with, including Chavez Jr., Pacquiao, and former jr. welterweight champion Amir Khan. "Not only does Manny know my situation, Amir knows our situation, Julio knows the situation and knows that I'll be back in time to start training with him," Ariza reiterated in another FightHype interview. "I've talked to Manny about this, of course, first and foremost. Amir knows the situation. Everybody knows the situation and my position as far as where I am with Team Chavez."
What is somewhat of a suprise, however, is that Pacquiao just started training with Ariza last week. Although Ariza has been in the Philippines for the past 4 weeks working with Khan, Pacquiao had yet to hook up with Ariza or his Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach. Both men were under the impression that Pacquiao wanted to begin working with them early, but for whatever reason, the 8-division world champion did not arrive to their training camp in Baguio until 4 days ago. Pacquiao isn't expected to arrive in the United States until early May, when the two will hook up again to resume working together. Given the fact that Ariza had stressed to Pacquiao the importance of getting back to training his way, one has to wonder if the limited time that the two will spend together will play a role in the upcoming June 9th showdown with undefeated jr. welterweight champion Timothy Bradley.
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