Photo: Chris Farina / Top Rank
Manny Pacquiao and Brandon Rios are scheduled to square off against one another on November 19 in Macau, China, but their trainers have already begun the fisticuffs. The skirmish began when Freddie Roach entered the gym being shared by both fighters in Macau at approximately 11am local time. Brandon Rios was just finishing up his workout when Roach apparently made a beeline for Rios’ trainer Garcia demanding that the camp leave the facility for Pacquiao’s session. Words were exchanged between the two and the two allegedly began shoving each other. The situation then escalated with reports varying on who threw the first punch, but it’s been made clear that Rios’ strength coach, Alex Ariza, landed some type of blow onto Roach. Ariza was formerly a close associate of both Roach and Pacquiao.
Both camps have exchanged harsh words at one another during the lead-up to Saturday’s fight and this could be an incident of this boiling over. It also could be a staged attempt to promote a fight that has garnered minimal interest among major mainstream sports publications. This could be evidenced by the fact that HBO just happened to be filming during the incident and the footage will make it onto this Thursday’s edition of “24/7″. You be the judge…
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Update: Here is video of the altercation, as recorded by Seconds Out
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