EXCLUSIVE Justin Fortune: Alex Ariza you don’t know s***!

strength and conditioning

PHOTO: Chris Farina/TOP RANK

NO-NONSENSE Justin Fortune, the former pro heavyweight who now serves as Manny Pacquiaoโ€™s strength and conditioning coach, has outlined why he believes he is a much better fit for the role than his predecessor Alex Ariza, who now works with the Filipinoโ€™s arch rival, Floyd Mayweather. His reasoning has little to do with physiological expertise, but more his personality type and that his presence or, more pointedly, Arizaโ€™s absence, has made the whole camp ahead of the Mayweather Fight of the Century a more harmonious environment.

โ€œIf theyโ€™re miserable and thereโ€™s animosity in camp, you donโ€™t get the performance out of your athlete,โ€ he told us exclusively. โ€œThatโ€™s pretty f***ing simple and thatโ€™s what there was, from what I gather, animosity in that camp. It was one person doing it all and they got rid of him then Mayweather took him on: how stupid is that? What f***ing point does it prove? He doesnโ€™t know s***, [Pacquiaoโ€™s head trainer] Freddie [Roach]โ€™s forgotten more than this pr*** will ever know. Number two, he just got fired from Freddie, he just got fired from [Robert] Garcia and then he went to Mayweather, so if youโ€™re trying to prove a point, you really donโ€™t know what the f*** youโ€™re doing [laughs]. If youโ€™re trying to play a mind game, youโ€™re even dumber than what we thought because we just took the cancer out of our camp and you took it in; thatโ€™s more your bad luck than anything else. Thatโ€™s not really that smart.โ€

Fortune reveals some of the work he, Roach and Pacquiao are doing ahead of the May 2 megafight in next weekโ€™s Boxing News magazine and while Fortune doubts Mayweatherโ€™s judgement when it pertains to training personnel, he retains a healthy respect for โ€œMoneyโ€ as a fighter.

โ€œTaking nothing away from Mayweather, this guy can fight,โ€ conceded the Australian. โ€œWeโ€™re not underestimating him, not by a long shot.โ€

FULL FASCINATING INTERVIEW WITH FORTUNE IN NEXT WEEK’S BOXING NEWS

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