Strength and conditioning coaches have slowly become a staple in a lot of teams. More and more fighters have turned to them to get in the best physical shape possible. Even the best fighter on the planet, Floyd Mayweather, decided to add S&C coach Alex Ariza for arguably the biggest fight of his career when he faced Manny Pacquiao earlier this month. S&C coach Angel Heredia has had great success getting his own fighters into optimal shape and increasing their power and speed. He's worked with the likes of Juan Manuel Marquez, Jessie Vargas, and Jean Pascal to name a few. His most recent success story comes with one of his newest additions in Badou Jack, who surprised many when he captured his first world title against Anthony Dirrell this past April.
Jack suffered a major setback when he was stopped in the first round of his fight with Derek Edwards back in 2014. He was able to mount a successful comeback, but he made sure he had additional help and sought the services of Heredia. "We had been working for almost 10 weeks. All this wouldn't have been possible if Floyd hadn't been very positive and helping Badou and trying to get him to the top. It paid off and he approved everything and Floyd approved science and it was good work," Heredia would tell FightHype in a recent interview.
Jack and Heredia's partnership began in early January when they both met at the MGM over coffee. Badou asked Heredia to help him and not only did Heredia agree, but he promised Jack he would win his next fight no matter who it was. At that particular time, Badou's fight with Dirrell wasn't done, but 3 months later, Heredia made good on his promise. "We trained and we did close to Juan Manuel Marquez's strength conditioning system; very close to it because he's an A student, but still has to go through B and C. But he did a very good job and I'm very happy with him and very proud. He trained with me day in and day out and never complained and went up to Big Bear with us and trained with Jean Pascal when he was in camp preparing for Kovalev," Heredia explained.
Heredia credits Jack's team for his success and for doing a great job, but he also feels the work he did with Jack also helped him win the biggest fight of his career to date. This was Jack's first 12-round fight and he was able to go strong for all 36 minutes. "Yes, conditioning was the key because when the fight started, Dirrell was a strong fighter and was trying to look for the knockout the first few rounds and wasn't able to. Badou was then able to outperform him and box him and do whatever he wanted to and played with him the last 4 rounds. At the end of the day, he proved that a good boxer with a good corner and good conditioning team can do a lot of good things," said Heredia.
Heredia's work with Badou and his reputation has now led him to work with his newest client, Paulie Malignaggi. The fighter turned announcer, and now fighter again, is mounting a comeback after suffering a TKO loss to Shawn Porter in his last outing. Heredia is hoping to achieve the same results he got with Jack and increase Paulie's power. "Yes, we have been working. [Paulie's] a very phenomenal guy and a great man. He's hilarious and a funny guy to be around. And the most important thing is he works his ass off. He doesn't back off. He trains and he trains and it doesn't matter how hard he trains, he always gives you his best. I love working with him and he's done a great job," revealed Heredia. "It's going to be a good comeback fight for him and of course after this fight, we'll switch to a different workout and as we go, we get better and better. Get him more on his punching power and of course, everybody knows Paulie and Paulie comes to fight and throws many punches. But I want to work with him something special. I want to make him punching power and use his speed that he already has. That's going to make him successful punching power."
Malignaggi expressed his excitement in teaming up with Heredia and told FightHype that their first workout was an intense one, but he enjoyed it. Heredia made his way to Brooklyn this week to continue working with Malignaggi as he continues to prepare him for his fight in 2 weeks. Heredia will remain busy the next few months as after Malignaggi, he will get Jessie Vargas ready for his showdown with Tim Bradley in June and Heredia also plans to reunite with Juan Manuel Marquez very soon.
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