Floyd Mayweather has been the subject of some speculation in the build-up to his rematch with Marcos Maidana this weekend.
He cleared up that former Manny Pacquiao conditioning coach Alex Ariza is not part of his team.
Ariza was pictured on more than one occasion involved in camp over the course of the last few weeks, but Mayweather says the trainer wasn’t acting in an official capacity and has never been paid for his services.
“In the past I’ve spoke about Alex Ariza, but I never knew him. He’d come by the gym, he’d watch me train, and he showed me some stretches before I ran and that’s it. However he handles business with his other fighters is how he handles business,” said Mayweather.
“I’m not enemies with Alex Ariza. We may just talk about boxing, we just talk about normal things. What Alex Ariza has said is “I’ve never seen a fighter in my life train as hard as you and work as hard as you. Now I see why you where you’re at. He said I just wanted to come see for myself. He basically said that I thought that ALL ACCESS was just camera tricks. I didn’t really know you worked that hard.”
“When he came and said I’ve never seen a fighter work as hard as you. Now I see why you are where you at in the sport of boxing.
“He showed me stretches that I can do that could help me. Alex came to the gym more than just on one occasion, but just because a guy comes to the boxing gym and watches me train or a guy goes to eat with us that doesn’t mean he’s my strength and conditioning coach. He happened to be a strength and conditioning coach and showed me some stretches so far.
“The only thing I can say is that he’s a strength and conditioning coach that showed me some stretches. Has he ever received a check from me? Absolutely not.”
Mayweather is not expected to have Ariza in his corner once the first bell rings at the MGM Grand on Saturday night.
