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ALEX ARIZA SAYS IT'S MAYWEATHER OR BUST FOR HIS BOXING CAREER: "I WOULDN'T WANT TO END MY CAREER ANYWHERE ELSE BUT WITH HIM"

By Ben Thompson | September 30, 2014
ALEX ARIZA SAYS IT'S MAYWEATHER OR BUST FOR HIS BOXING CAREER:

"I don't know the extent of the rumor, but yeah, it's true. I'm going to leave. I spoke to Floyd and got the green light for it, so I'm gonna go on vacation before I basically go check it out...all I'm doing is entertaining an invitation and an offer to come and see what international soccer has to offer for me...If he's extending that to me, man, I didn't expect it. After spending those 3 weeks with him and seeing how he is and everything, I mean, I wouldn't want to end my career anywhere else but with him," stated world-class Strength & Conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who confirmed that he is indeed entertaining offers to work with an international soccer team and will likely no longer be working in boxing if pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather decides not to use him for his next fight. Check out what else he had to say!

BT: Alex, I gotta get straight to it. Are the rumors true? Are you leaving boxing for soccer?

AA: I mean, I don't know the extent of the rumor, but yeah, it's true. I'm going to leave. I spoke to Floyd and got the green light for it, so I'm gonna go on vacation before I basically go check it out.

BT: So are you totally done working in boxing then?

AA: Ultimately, I will go and see what the offers are. There's really a lot of money in the sport [soccer]. It goes much further than just one person. There's team, there's endorsements, and there's a lot of things that they have to offer, but just like anything else, I want to go over there as a student because there's always something to learn when you're someplace like that, you know what I mean? To be able to train at a different level, to be able to train with different kinds of athletes; it's about broadening the knowledge of what you do. But I think it's very comparable [to boxing] as far as conditioning and strength and what a soccer player uses. Obviously there's not a lot of punches and stuff like that being thrown, but the fact that they're just so well-conditioned. They need explosive speed and explosive power and conditioning, and it all has to be incorporated into one for these long games. Of course, like anything else, I want to go and see because I've never been to Europe, and any time an invitation like that arises, you have to go see what they have to offer. At the end of the day, make no mistake, whatever the decision is, I'll have to run it through Floyd.

BT: What exactly will you be doing in soccer? Will you be working with a team or a specific individual?

AA: At this moment, all I'm doing is entertaining an invitation and an offer to come and see what international soccer has to offer for me. Is it for a whole team? Is it for a couple of individuals? Is it just for one individual? I just don't know yet and I don't want to really talk too much about something that I haven't gone and seen yet; and maybe they don't want it to be out for who it is. But again, I'm going there with an open mind, even as a student, to go and train with everybody, to be able to watch other strength coaches, to interact with other people in my field, and just be able to hopefully get more educated because I think soccer and boxing, the conditioning and what they have to go through is very similar.

BT: You mentioned running it by Floyd. It sounds like you might still be working with him if the opportunity presents itself. Is the future of your boxing career basically on hold right now because of the non-compete/non-disclosure agreements you signed?

AA: Absolutely. I mean, I belong to Floyd for the next two years. Of course, again, this happened last Wednesday. I spoke to Floyd and Floyd said, "Nah man. Go entertain it. Enjoy yourself. It's an opportunity to see what they have to offer." But at the end of the day, I gotta come back and it's gotta be run through him whatever decision gets made.

BT: When you signed that 2-year non-compete/non-disclosure agreement, were you concerned that it could essentially prevent you from working in boxing if Floyd decides not to work with you?

AA: I mean, it always goes back to this: when you enter whatever career path that you enter, you want to get to the very top. That's what I look to do. I think if you're a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer, whatever, you want to go and you want to get as far as you can in that field that you can possibly go. I mean, it's a surreal thing if I was to sit here and say 6 years ago I could be working with who the sport considers to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Let me ask you the question, where else is there left for me to go?

BT: I mean, when you put it that way, I guess nowhere really since Floyd is pretty much at the pinnacle of the sport.

AA: I'm at the top of it. That's it. If my career ends with Floyd, I can tell that story to my kids, my kids' kids, my kids' kids' kids. I mean, I couldn't plan this any better to end up where I am right now. To finish my career with Floyd, that would be it. Whatever it is that you choose to do for a living, you're in it to reach the absolute pinnacle of that profession. Of course I sat there and I thought about it for a minute, but I have to actually be honest with you, it was a very, very brief minute that I thought about it. If he's extending that to me, man, I didn't expect it. After spending those 3 weeks with him and seeing how he is and everything, I mean, I wouldn't want to end my career anywhere else but with him.



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