Adviser Michael Koncz has been stirring the pot in the camp of Manny Pacquiao to an excessive degree lately, feuding with trainer Freddie Roach and earning the ire of Pacquiao fans the world over, but now it looks like he went too far. Ronnie Nathanielsz reports that Koncz was beaten up by Pacquiao's conditioning coach, Alex Ariza, after another attempt to pull a power play from the people actually involved with getting Manny ready.
"The trouble exploded when conditioning expert Alex Ariza reportedly learned that Koncz had consistently attempted to get him fired by Pacquiao despite the fact that by all accounts Ariza has helped turn the Filipino boxing icon into an explosive fighter ever since he teamed up with celebrated trainer Freddie Roach."
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"BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports learned that Koncz had allegedly tried to have Ariza removed from working the corner of Pacquiao for the Cotto fight and wanted to take his place.
"After Pacquiao himself in a meeting about fight credentials with Joe Ramos had listed Roach and Ariza as well as Filipino trainer Buboy Fernandez as his corner-men, Koncz was alleged to have gone to Roach and told him that Pacquiao didn’t want Ariza in his corner and wanted him instead.
"Our source who was in Baguio City told us that when Ariza learned about the moves of Koncz who had earlier even wanted Roach replaced, he confronted the Canadian adviser and beat him up before a bodyguard jumped in and subdued Ariza preventing him from inflicting further harm on Koncz who reportedly received at least five blows thrown by the conditioning guru who is known to be strong.
"By all accounts when Pacquiao woke up and learned about the incident, he had no reaction."
This almost feels overdue. It seems obvious to the people near Pacquiao, such as Roach and Ariza, that the guy is a scumbag, and it seems pretty clear from the outside looking in that the guy's completely out for himself and nothing more. He clearly knows nothing about boxing, about what Pacquiao needs as a fighter, or about what he should be doing as an adviser to the world's most popular fighter.
And they can keep saying that the camp is going great, but unless Manny seriously has the patience of a saint, he's not going to be 100% focused on Miguel Cotto and the job at hand with all this squabbling going on.
Update: Koncz denies the story, which, like, of course he does.