Marquez's strength coach Hernandez speaks out - Next

On whether or not he suspects Pacquiao of using performance enhancing substances:

"No. I think that Manny is obviously somebody I truly admire. He's been around and one of my favorite boxers. It's ironic that we're against each other.

"But no, he's done blood tests and urine tests in the past.I think that he's been throught that. I don't have any negative opinion about him.

"Like I said, the boxing match will go on, and my opinion of him is that he's a clean athlete. In my personal opinion, he's clean. My opinon is that he's probably clean."

On some of the methods and supplements used with Marquez:

"We're using all legal supplements permitted by the rules of boxing. We're using creatine. He has used amino acids and enzymes that help him to recover and to reduce the lactic acids.

"But doing so, what is that advantage? You can train with more days to work out, like, six days to work out, because the main thing is the recovery in between workouts.

"We've been doing the hyperbaric chambers and we've been training as high as 5,000 meters above sea level. That helps a lot. We recover. And we're fighting at altitude."

On whether Marquez's credentials are tainted by his prescence:

"You can not judge Marquez's 26 years in the sport, because I've only been here a few weeks. You can not take away from what he's done in the past.

"He's always training and [trainer] Nacho [Beristain] is an excellent coach. You know what? It doesn't bother me. But it kind of makes me mad that someone just threw my name up and then you're going to go ahead and taint somebody's reputation.

On Marquez's condition for Pacquiao:

"I think that he's definitely ready for the fight. He's strong. He's stronger than before. He's way faster than before. He's in really good condition.

"So mentally he's ready. We've finished his last workout this morning, so my duty is finished. Now he has to just maintain his body weight. It's pretty much just getting ready for this fight..

"We've been working on a lot of speed. A lot of strength emphasis, plyometrics, medicine ball, elastic bands, resistance training. We've been working on fast-twitch muscles and speed rather than a lot of endurance that coaches do."

On how Marquez's training will manifest itself against Pacquiao:

"Think about it, Manny has always been a fast guy, obviously. But there's a point where you can not get faster. Juan Manuel has gotten faster since I've been involved, and that's what has helped him a lot.

"We have improved technically, and his power is way way too strong and his speed, he's definitely stronger. You will see that in the ring.

"We know that Manny's obviously a fast guy, but Juan Manuel is going to be faster too. We're talking about speed strength, and his reaction will be explosive.

"His punch is definitely stronger than he was punching before. Why? Because of his mass and his explosiveness is there, so he's going to have more of an impact for sure."

Photo by Chris Robinson

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com