Manny Pacquiao: Is His Conditioning Coach Alex Ariza Leaving Team Pacquiao?

A member of Team Pacquiao hinted Alex Ariza, the Colombian strength and conditioning coach of Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, may be on his way out and won't be working at Pacquiao's corner when the pound-for-pound king squares off with Shane Mosley on May 7 in Las Vegas.

Cutman Miguel Diaz of Team Pacquiao told Dr. Ed de la Vega, a Las Vegas-based dentist, after they bumped into each other in California a few days ago that the fitness coach may be out of the picture.

Diaz said he will be in Las Vegas for the Pacquiao-Mosley fight.

“Who else will it be if not me? And guess who is not working Manny’s corner? It’s that fraud who just recently started working for him lately,” Diaz told Dela Vega, the maker of customized mouth guards.

“I have been with Manny for years and that fraud is new. So, guess who is not working for Manny?” Diaz added, referring to Ariza, as Dela Vega said.

Ariza has been in the news lately in connection with his soured working relationship with Amir Khan's father over a dispute on his fees as Khan's fitness coach. He also claims some members of Khan's team broke into his hotel room recently and stole important documents, including his contract with Pacquiao and Chavez.

According to Ariza, he doesn't have any problem with the actual fighter. Ariza is involved in a financial dispute with members of Khan's team. There appears to be an issue over Ariza's compensation for Khan's "Fight of Year" win over Marcos Maidana, which took place last month at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Ariza claims that members of Khan team broke into his hotel room and stole several contracts related to the coach's compensation for Khan, Manny Pacquiao and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

"They broke into my hotel room and what they did was, they stole the contract that I had made with Amir. Now they don't want to pay me for the work that I did with Amir Khan. They already admitted to Freddie Roach's lawyer [Nick Khan] that they did steal the contract," Ariza told BoxingScene.com.

In the meantime, Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach said he is not getting involved with the dispute between Amir Khan's camp and Alex Ariza.

According to Amir Khan's father Shah, Amir doesn't have a contract with Ariza and that the fitness coach should deal with Freddie Roach instead.

Roach, for his part, said he has nothing to do with the disputed contract between Ariza and Amir Khan, adding Ariza works independently.

Although Ariza is not really new with Team Pacquiao, having started in 2008 as Pacquiao's conditioning coach, it seems Pacquiao needs some changes in the way Ariza handles his physical conditioning.

It may be recalled Team Pacquiao had dropped some of Ariza's training methods during the Baguio City segment of the training for the Pacquiao-Margarito fight.

Rumors are swirling around that Ariza is indeed on his way out of Pacquiao's team and that Freddie Roach has found a new fitness coach replacement who could be the same as the one he recently introduced to Amir Khan.