"I don't want to take any credit and I don't want to be penalized for any result or any outcome that might happen, before or after the fight, when I'm not involved and I'm not working with Floyd. If he wanted to do it [work with me], it's too late already. It [the fight] is already four weeks away. I'm not going to take a chance at that. Team Heredia is about performance, not about money," stated world-class strength & conditioning coach Angel Heredia, who set the record straight regarding rumors that he's working with undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather ahead of his highly-anticipated May 2 mega-fight with 8-division world champion Manny Pacquiao. Check out what else he had to say!
BT: Angel, I'm not sure where the rumor started, but it seems like more and more people are trying to say that you're working with Floyd Mayweather simply because you put some tweets out supporting TMT. Can you just set the record straight? You're not working with Floyd, but you are working with his fighter, Badou Jack, correct?
AH: That's correct, yeah. Jack is a client of mine. As far as I know, Badou Jack is TMT. I haven't even been approached professionally about working with Floyd. If he wanted to hire me, he'd have to talk to me and sit down with me as a professional. If he wanted to talk, he could call Gaby Penagaricano, Cotto's advisor; that's my lawyer. Let's just make it clear, Alex [Ariza] consulted me as a colleague for some strength conditioning exercises. He called me up, we had a meeting, we sat down, and we exchanged information. I really wanted to [work with Floyd] and I was very happy to possibly be part of his team. And of course, I'm always happy to help Alex Ariza with whatever questions, as any colleague would do. I'm happy to do that, but I'm not going to sit here and take heat from people asking me all these questions when I have no idea what's going on. I don't want to take any credit and I don't want to be penalized for any result or any outcome that might happen, before or after the fight, when I'm not involved and I'm not working with Floyd. If he wanted to do it [work with me], it's too late already. It [the fight] is already four weeks away. I'm not going to take a chance at that. Team Heredia is about performance, not about money.
I could've helped him. Obviously Alex knows that, but if he doesn't want to do it or he wants to believe other people, then let him do that. Like I said, Team Heredia is not involved, so I'm not gonna take no positive credit or negative credit. We don't want to be responsible for any outcome or result when we're not responsible. We are going to focus on Jessie Vargas, we're going to focus on Badou Jack, and three other fighters we got right there, all of them fighting for world titles. I got [Marvin] Sonsona, Jessie Vargas, I got Badou Jack, I got [Juan Manuel] Marquez; I got plenty other fighters. All I want to say is Floyd's a good fighter. If he believes his system is going to be enough to beat Pacquiao, then let him believe that. If Alex can help him, which I think he should, then let him think that. That's the end of it. No more conversation on that.
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]