Malignaggi's steroids theory proves why Pacquiao is great and he isn't
There is a saying that opinions are like anuses, everybody got one and they all stink. Well, Paulie Malignaggi definitely has an opinion about everything under the sun, and you got to give the guy some credit for not holding back regardless if you might think his anus, I mean, his opinion, stinks.
Malignaggi is a friend of this column and I have interviewed him in the past. I for one was part of the contingent that called for a rematch between him and Juan Diaz which will be taking place this Saturday at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. With that said, you already know I don't pull any punches and with his recent statements saying he believes Pacquiao is on some form of performance enhancing drugs, one has to wonder his motives. While a guest at The Boxing Truth Radio show, Malignaggi said, (click here to listen)
"First and foremost, you talk to body builders they'll tell you themselves, it's very hard to put on 15-17 pounds of body muscle in a year and a half. Let's remember Manny Pacquiao fought at 130 pounds against Juan Manuel Marquez in 08. He fought In November of 09 against Miguel Cotto 15 to 17 pounds heavier. He looked exactly the same out of "rippedness" and "shreddedness", his body did, at 130 pounds. So you're telling me, this guy 6 foot 4, 6 foot 5, body builder telling me that it's impossible to put on that kind of muscle mass in a year and a half naturally,"
"You're telling me this little midget, 5'5 or 5'4, 5'6 the most, put on 15 to 17 in natural weight and his team is going to try and explain it saying he eats 7,000 calories a day and he just burns it. If you eat 7,000 calories a day and you're 5'5, 5'6 my man you are not going to looked ripped, you're gonna look a little bloated."
"Let's look at Manny Pacquiao when he started moving up from 130. He was a very good fighter at 130 and below.When he got hit you can feel it. He was like life and death with Juan Manuel Marquez and he was wobbly a couple of times when Marquez hit him..."
"Ever since that David Diaz fight, I mean is it just me or does this guy seem like he's King Kong since he went up from 130 pounds. And there's no way he was struggling to make 130 because he weighed-in 122 just a few years before that. Let's face it, once you get past 28 years old you're not going anywhere. Let's be realistic here."
"I'm taking facts and I'm putting them together and they don't just make sense to me. I don't have all the facts obviously he's passing the tests (mandatory drug tests before every fight) Let's keep in mind there plenty of things you can do to beat drug tests and there's plenty of drugs and steroids that are not detectable. This guy is hurting guys every time he touches them and HE WASN'T DOING THAT AT THE LIGHTER WEIGHTS."
"At the smaller weights he was very good but he was beatable but now he has gone up in weight and he's not just beating guys and he's crushing world class killers. He's absolutely crushing them!" "He's obviously become a Superman and people say but steroids won't make your chin feel better, yeah, but there's things that can make you feel like you're on speed or something. There's things out there that make you feel like that."
CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES OF PACQUIAO'S "ROID"
Paulie, Paulie, Paulie... I respect the hell out of you as a boxer but how can you be so ignorantly stupid? I can't help but wonder if it's your bias against Pacquiao due to the fact that he knocked out two of your "daddys" in Cotto and Hatton that's gotten you swirling like a top with your bombastic blabber against him or you are simply trying to gain publicity because anything with Pacquiao attached to it, as we all media types know, will generate a lot of attention.
First and foremost, the facts that Paulie were pointing out are actually hacked. More like selective facts. I mean, before I continue on, I got to wonder, was Paulie simply being sarcastic? Because he did say a lot of flattering things about Pacquiao if you read it that way. And one more thing, why the heck do those who love to hate on Pacquiao have to be the hardest people to understand like Floyd Mayweather Sr? I swear, listening and trying to transcribe Mayweather Sr. is like trying to hear the words from a record playing backwards while Malignaggi talks like he was translating English at the speed of Chinese.
Anyway, going back to the topic at hand, Malignaggi said Pacquiao was not knocking people out at the lower weights. I think someone forgot to mention to Paulie that Ledwaba is still lying on the same canvas from 2001. Here's real facts for you. Since 2001, Pacquiao has either knocked down or knocked out every single opponent he has faced except for Agapito Sanchez (if you saw that fight, you would know why. Sanchez tagged Pacquiao with low blows, head butts and should have been disqualified). Give me a name that Pacquiao fought whom he did not introduce to the mat? Oscar Dela Hoya might be one, but he quit, which to me really is a lot more devastating. I wonder how those facts escaped Paulie.
Second, Pacquiao's two losses in his career were due to being weight-drained. His first loss actually was a low blow, but that's not the point. When someone talks about facts, he must seek them out first. And fact is, Pacquiao himself was saying before the Marquez fight that it would be his last campaign at 130. Pacquiao was naturally getting bigger as he aged. The thing is with Pacquiao however, ever since he stepped foot in US soil, one thing was said about him by people who witnessed him train. From sparring partners, to fans, to writers, all the way to Freddie Roach and Bob Arum themselves. Pacquiao trains like nobody else they've seen their entire lives. Pacquiao is a hard worker.(Check out the video below)
"There's no fighter in the world trains harder than Manny Pacquiao" -- Freddie Roach
So onto Paulie's theory that it's impossible for a "midget" like Manny to gain 15 pounds of muscle mass in a year and a half. Okay, first of all, as I stated, Pacquiao was struggling to make 130 and was dehydrated at the weigh-ins against Marquez in March of 08. There were reports at the weigh-ins that Pacquiao was very cranky and that Roach said Manny was having a hard time making that weight and they would move up in weight after that fight.
Enter Alex Ariza. Roach hired Ariza together with nutritionist Teri Tom to help Pacquiao eat better, and to serve as his strength and conditioning coach. Pacquiao never really had scientific guidance in his regimen in the past, thus the addition of the new scientific training and diet really opened up new doors for Manny. Just ask any NBA player like LeBron or Kobe, these new advancements do give you an edge but it comes with hard work, discipline and dedication, not cheating.
Here's what Ariza and Teri said in an article published by Philstar.com in response to accusatins of steroid use and their top client,
“I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer except to say that some guys are more genetically gifted than others,” said Tom who was recruited by Pacquiao’s conditioning coach Alex Ariza to join the training team. “I’ve seen over 900 clients in my nutrition practice – that’s a lot of bodies. I know that guys who’ve thought their whole lives that they’re hard gainers often find out that if we pinpoint exactly how much protein and calories they need, and if we monitor and adapt over time, their genetic potential far exceeds their expectations. Obviously, Manny has incredible genetic gifts. Our job is to bring the most out of those gifts.”
Regarding Mayweather Sr., Ariza said he could only expect crazy comments from someone who didn’t even finish high school.
“We use supplements, not steroids,” said Ariza. “Someone who never finished high school, like Mayweather, wouldn’t understand the difference and that’s why they make dumb comments.”
Asked how much longer Pacquiao could fight at a high level given his age, Tom said “while he just keeps getting stronger and faster, a couple of more fights and he’ll probably move on to politics.”
Tom called Pacquiao’s rise from flyweight to possibly the welterweight champion “an incredible run.”
I can go on forever with this, but since I've already said much about this baseless accusation, one has to realize this. After losing to Erik Morales, Pacquiao and Roach worked tirelessly to improve. Pacquiao had his excuses, as most people do, but at the end of the day, he said what he had to say once and went on and did work. Any competitor hates losing. Real winners however, do what it takes to prevent it from happening again. And talking, just as Malignaggi has done throughout his career, blaming anybody from his trainer, promoter to politics as the reason for him being a second-class fighter, well that's a loser's commodity.
Perhaps Paulie said it best when he said in his closing statement about Pacquiao,
"At the end of the day there's just little bit too much out there and I have a hard time digesting it."
