By Marcus Richardson: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning trainer Alex Ariza is more than a little worried about Pacquiao ‘s fight coming up against the smaller Timothy Bradley on June 9th. Ariza wants to make sure that Pacquiao has a good camp and comes into the fight in the best possible shape to avoid any fatigue problems like the ones we’ve been seeing from Pacquiao in recent fights. Ariza wants to put Pacquiao though a tough camp where he comes out of it in excellent shape and ready to fight hard for 12 rounds if he has to.
Ariza told the Manilastandardtoday.com “We can’t have a bad camp. His physical conditioning is very important. This must happen all the way.”
I wonder what Ariza’s examples of a camp where it wasn’t done all the way. It looks like Pacquiao hasn’t been getting the full treatment of exercises from Ariza. Maybe if he goes through an entire camp and does all the routines that Ariza wants him to, Pacquiao won’t gas out or come up partially lame with leg cramps like the ones he’s been suffering off and on in his recent fights.
That seems to be more of a water/electrolyte problem. If not that, then Pacquiao needs to condition his legs for the kind of quick shifting of weight that he likes to do when moving from side to side in changing angles for his shots. He needs to focus more on movements requiring his legs rather than whole punch of upper body exercises that will strengthen one part of his body that he’s having no problems with at the expense of his legs, which is where Pacquiao is having issues.
Pacquiao cannot afford to run out of gas in this fight against Bradley, because he plans on pressuring Pacquiao hard for the full 12 rounds because he’s spotted how Pacquiao is having conditioning issues in his recent fights.