It’s not often that TQBR will link to an Elie Seckbach video. We’ll make an exception for this one, though, because it’s both newsworthy and hilarious. For the first two minutes or so it’s your standard ES hype video, selling Brandon Rios’ chances against Diego Chaves in August. Then, at 2.30, Robert Garcia casually mentions the fact that Rios won’t work with strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza. In fact, none of his fighters will. (That’d be the same Alex Ariza who was fired by Freddie Roach before being picked up by Garcia for Rios’ bout with Manny Pacquiao — a situation which got ugly).
All of which prompts the question: “Why was the bromance shortlived?” Could it have something to do with the performance enhancing drug rumours (and they are just rumours, we’d like to point out) that have followed Ariza? Was it a personality issue? Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to Seckbach to ask, or if it did, he edited it out (there’s a cut about five seconds after Garcia’s answer). Thank god he gave Garcia the chance to talk for two and a half minutes about what a GREAT TEAM he has and the GREAT SHAPE that Rios is in, though. That’s what I really wanted to hear.
What really takes the video to the next level is Seckbach’s inclusion of footage from his recent visit to Israel. There’s over a minute of random footage from an Israeli boxing gym, followed by a special Garcia shout-out to “Adam from Jerusalem” (pictured above, maybe).
A very special shout-out to Adam from TQBR.
