Cotto is expected to enter the ring weighing at least 10 pounds more than Pacquiao but the disparity doesn’t bother strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza who guaranteed the other day the challenger will be stronger than ever against the defending WBO welterweight champion from Puerto Rico.
What makes Ariza so confident is nutritionist Teri Tom’s careful monitoring of Pacquiao’s body composition.
Pacquiao and Cotto agreed to face off at the catchweight limit of 145 pounds even as the welterweight division is up to 147. Pacquiao, who weighed in at 138 for his fight against Hatton last May, will pack in extra pounds to scale close to 145 while Cotto must bring down his usual walking weight of about 160.
Tom was brought in by Ariza for Pacquiao’s fight against De la Hoya because the catchweight limit of 147 was way beyond the Filipino’s normal weight last year. Tom’s mission was to make Pacquiao stronger and faster despite adding weight to his body. He weighed in at 142, his highest ever, for the fight.
“Teri has been with us since the Oscar fight,” Ariza told The Star. “She is doing the body composition. She wasn’t able to come to Manila (but) she’s with us in this fight (against Cotto). Her role is very extensive. She runs everything we do and gives us the base of everything I follow.”
Ariza said Tom monitors Pacquiao’s body progress and charts his muscle development.
“She doesn’t have to be with us everyday,” continued Ariza. “Her role is (to come in) once a week. She checks and makes sure everything’s on track. She keeps all the records of where we started from Oscar to Hatton. And we compare notes on Manny’s speed, body fat and weight. We compare everything from fight to fight to make sure we’re in progress.”
Ariza, in an exclusive overseas telephone interview, said the exercises that he puts Pacquiao through in the gym are elements of a comprehensive program formulated with Tom and another associate Andrea Macias of San Diego State.
“We work as a team,” said Ariza. “I run everything in our program through Teri and Andrea. We look at all the aspects of conditioning – isometrics, diet, muscle build-up. It’s not the work of any one person. We’re all focused on Manny and we’re excited to be working with the world’s greatest fighter, pound for pound.”
Tom is a summa cum laude graduate in communications at UCLA, earned a Master’s degree in nutrition science at California State-Los Angeles and completed her clinical dietetic rotations at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. She also has a certification as a personal trainer from the National Academy of Sports Medicine. To top it all, Tom is a jeet kune do instructor.
Tom said she was challenged to build up Pacquiao’s body mass without compromising his speed and power when he decided to move up two weight classes to fight De la Hoya.
“Manny has a history of dipping into the 130s only several weeks into training which was fine when he was fighting at a lower weight but this time, we had to keep him heavy so he’d have some heft going into the ring with Oscar,” wrote Tom in her book “Martial Arts Nutrition.”
Tom said in Pacquiao’s diet, she increased the frequency of his meals and switched his supplements. She introduced a protein shake of about 20 grams in the morning before jogging and another 20 grams after his workout in the afternoon. There was also a mid-morning snack, usually an egg sandwich. The goal was to build his muscle mass.
Eating a lot of calorie-laden food at his favorite Thai restaurant beside the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles was not a problem in Tom’s program.
“When you’re Manny, you burn through calories like there’s no tomorrow,” said Tom. “My feeling is if he’s four to six percent body fat and losing muscle is a concern, I’m not going to quibble about the Thai restaurant and coconut sauces. It’s more important that he get those calories in and that it’s palatable to him and that he enjoys his food. A lot of people ask me about the four cups of rice he’ll have. Again, not a problem when body fat is coming down and we are preserving muscle.”
Tom said a careful balance of nutritional intake is crucial during Pacquiao’s training period. “Carbohydrate intake during extended bouts of exercise has been proved to improve performance,” she noted. “Carbohydrates are key to fueling your alertness and skill whether you’re training or competing.”
(Note: Listen to a 77-minute in-depth primer of the Pacquiao-Cotto fight on philstar.com. It’s the website’s inaugural podcast.)
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