"I'm so disappointed that they took that route. He didn't do nothing during the fight to indicate that he was injured at all...I emphatically deny that fact. When I was training Manny for 6 years, we never had a shoulder problem...We've watched this fight 10 times and nothing indicates to me that Manny was favoring the shoulder or he wasn't doing something that looked to me that was impeding his way of fighting...Every round that I saw Manny in, they weren't working on his shoulder. They weren't trying to adjust it or manipluate it in some way to see if they could find some kind of level of comfort. They didn't put any ice on it or nothing," stated world-class strengthy & conditioning coach Alex Ariza, who shared his thoughts on the shoulder injury that Pacquiao allegedly suffered prior to his mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather. Check it out!
BT: Looking back at the fight and the days leading up to it, was there anything that led you to believe that something was wrong with Manny Pacquiao's shoulder?
AA: Absolutely not. There was a lot of video of his workouts that were all over the place on the internet. When he was here, I think it was Wednesday at the Top Rank gym, he was doing mitts, hitting this and hitting that, throwing the hook; the same old thing. He looked good. He looked sharp. Everybody in their camp talked about this new Manny that we were supposed to see on Saturday night. I talked to many people in the camp afterwards and they're a little bit stunned as well that there was an injury.
I mean, here's the thing, when you look at athletes who are in these sports that do repetitive action movements, whether you're a pitcher, a tennis player, or even a quarterback, when you have something like what they said, a torn ligament or a torn tendon or something like that, trust me when I tell you you're not moving that shoulder, I don't care how much adrenaline you have, and then at the end of the fight, raise your hand over your head and start pumping your fist. The truth is Manny looked like shit. They brought him in at 152 pounds and he looked like shit. He wasn't physically strong, he wasn't quick, and he wasn't exposive. What does that have to do with his shoulder? Where was his footwork? Where were his angles? Where was all of that? So hurting his shoulder negates everything else? You know, if he says he's hurt, he's hurt, but after watching the fight 10 fucking times, man, I'm so disappointed that they took that route. He didn't do nothing during the fight to indicate that he was injured at all.
BT: Well, obviously something must have happened for them to schedule surgery on it. I know you're not a doctor, but do you know anything about the type of surgery that's necessary for a shoulder injury? [Editor's note: This interview was conducted during the early morning hours on Wednesday, prior to Pacquiao's surgery.]
AA: What happens is that people get lost in the terminology. They start throwing out big names. "We went to Kerlan Jobe [Orthopaedic Clinic], who did surgery on Kobe Bryant." I don't give a fuck if Kerlan Jobe worked on the Queen of England. That doesn't mean shit to me, and it means even less when they say Manny is going to have "surgery". That doesn't mean a thing to me either. Who gives a fuck? What's going to mean something to the fans, to the public, and to the media is when they say, "We had to make an evasive cut to repair, suture, stitch, or staple a ligament that had been torn." That's what's going to matter. All this other horse shit is the same thing that they did when there was a supposed "contract" that existed, but never existed.
The same people that claimed Manny Pacquiao sigend a contract that never existed are now saying that there was a pre-existing shoulder injury. I don't buy it. "Oh, we took an MRI." So fucking what? Let me tell you what's going to happen. They're going to scope the shoulder, which is nothing more than a few little incisions, and they're going to send the little camera in there and they're going to look around. My bet is that they're going to find nothing.
BT: When you say they're going to scope the shoulder, technically, that is considered surgery though, right?
AA: It is surgery. It's not invasive. I mean, it's an outpatient clinic thing. You go in there and it takes less than a couple of hours. If there's nothing wrong, you can go back to functional movement the next day without them doing nothing; just moving around some things. They'll manipulate the shoulder in certain directions and areas and they'll start to look at connective tissues, ligaments, tendons, muscles; anything that can indicate that Manny really has a tear. They also said they have a MRI, but MRIs are about maybe 70-80% accurate on joints. You know, the soulder is like a map; it looks like a road map. Ligaments, tendons, muscles, and things like that, I mean, they just cross over each other, so it's a really complicated area. Once you get in there, you really get to see what you're doing. So they'll fill it up with a bunch of fluids so they'll be able to manipulate the shoulder, move the arm around, and see if there's any ligament damage or anything torn. But like I said, let's look into the crystal ball. This is what you're going to hear. Okay, they scope it and they'll find nothing wrong, so they'll say, "Manny Pacquiao has to go under extensive rehabilitation for 6 months." That's what you're going to hear, which is to say nothing more. There's nothing fucking wrong with him.
BT: According to Bob Arum, this injury goes all the way back to the Oscar De La Hoya fight. He mentioned something about a jet ski accident that initially caused the injury during that time.
AA: This is the same Bob Arum that said Manny was afraid of needles too. This is the same Bob Arum that said there was a contract that Manny already signed.
BT: (Laughing) During the years you were working with Manny, do you ever recall any complaints about an injured shoulder?
AA: Never! Never! I emphatically deny that fact. When I was training Manny for 6 fucking years, we never had a shoulder problem. Now listen, that's not to say we didn't have soreness. You know, this is a combative sport. I used to always tell Amir and Julio and all of them that we're never going to go into a fight 100%. But to say that you have something torn or you have something damaged that would impede your level of performance, no, Manny's never ever had any of those problems.
We've watched this fight 10 times and nothing indicates to me that Manny was favoring the shoulder or he wasn't doing something that looked to me that was impeding his way of fighting. You've seen a lot of basketball players where if they do something, boom, you know something's not right right away. Every round that I saw Manny in, they weren't working on his shoulder. They weren't trying to adjust it or manipluate it in some way to see if they could find some kind of level of comfort. They didn't put any ice on it or nothing. Or how about you yourself manually doing something to notify your corner? I would've said, "Tell me where it hurts? What's wrong? Why aren't you doing a fucking thing out there?" What I'm saying is that in the corner, you don't see any urgency to figure out what's wrong. If there's a shoulder problem that early in the fight, you start going to work, right?
If your rotator cuff is that messed up, trust me, you're not moving it, bro. It's the most uncomfortable and wierd feeling. You're talking about something that's an internal discomfort that you've never felt before and it's kind of scary. It kind of freaks you out. All of a sudden, your arm is not functioning. He won the sixth round, I think, on a right hand, you know. Now you're going to tell me the excuses were his legs, he couldn't punch for two weeks, and now he had a shoulder problem. To be honest with you, I'm a little disappointed. I mean, not to have the character as a professional athlete just to take the loss as opposed to stealing away the peformance of your opponent, who completely neutralized you all night and made you have the least amount of effectiveness out of 47 other opponents. That's how dominated you got, and you're considered number 2 pound-for-pound?
Again, it's not Manny's fault that he had an inept crew. It's like Floyd said, man, we did so much work, but we didn't even get to show it. We didn't get to show the strength, the power, the conditioning. We didn't get to show half the shit that we worked on because Manny was a deer in headlights all night and didn't want to come in. It was probably one of the easiest fights I think he's ever had. You know, our second or third week, of course Floyd is older and things were starting to catch up with him as hard as he was training. What did we do? We troubleshoot the injuries and aches, we avoid the things that are causing the problems, and we look for other alternatives to continue your workout. Let that problem alleviate itself, focus on it, have people rehabilitate it and working on it with ice bags and cryotherapy. How he felt physically, only he knows. He might have been still feeling it, but he 100% went in there and he fought and he won and he beat your ass, so fucking give the guy his props. Don't make excuses, man. At 67 fucking fights, you're going to tell me he didn't know any better about what to do? Something doesn't make sense to me here because this supposedly happened awhile ago. If he had a significant tear three or four weeks ago, why would any doctor not write and say, "Hey, I'm not approving him to go through with this." So did he have a significant tear back then or he had a significant tear now? Which is it? There's so many inconsistencies. He could've tore it during the fight for all we know. That's what happens when you don't have a real professional group, or real professional agent, or real professional manager. Obviously you have a liar for a promoter and now you yourself are starting to become just like them, and that's the sad part. Now your character is starting to come into question, because to be honest with you, I don't believe it.
BT: I think what makes it look even more suspect is the fact that they didn't disclose the injury on NSAC's pre-fight questionnaire. Those guys have been in enough fights to know better than that.
AA: Let me tell you something, in my opinion, that's another lie that they offered Manny something. The Manny I know won't take aspirin, he won't take anti-inflammatories, he won't take cortizone, he won't do any of that shit. He won't do it. I mean, if it happened three weeks ago, why not give him a cortizone shot back then? You want to wait 60 minutes right before the fucking fight to disclose? Wow, those are some real scumbag people, man. Now it becomes an issue of ripping people off in my opinion. There are people who paid ten times the amount of face value for a ticket and they lied right to their face. What a real good friend Freddie Roach is to Mark Wahlberg. He let that guy put a $250,000 bet on a fucking injured fighter. I mean, if you came to me, Ben, and wanted to put that kind of bet on my fighter, I'd tell you, "Fuck no, Ben. His shoulder is fucked!" The commission should look into this and they should suspend their license, they should suspend the team, and they should suspend Bob Arum.
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]