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Manny Pacquiao won the WBC lightweight title by TKO at 2:24 of the ninth round over a courageous, but outclassed, David Diaz Saturday night at the Mandalay Events Center in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao was asked if he thought he was the best lightweight in the world at the postfight press conference.
"I don't compare myself to other fighters," Pacquiao replied. "I just try to make people happy."
And that he did, in what was likely the finest performance of his career. It was a brilliant combination of speed, power and boxing skills, giving the Filipino icon his fourth title in four weight classes. It was truly a performance for Pacquiao's time capsule.
From the opening bell, Pacquiao's hand speed, side-to-side movement and overall ring generalship utterly dominated Diaz, who was showing signs of a cut over his right eye and bridge of his nose as early as Round 2. The eye progressively worsened as Pacquiao zipped in and out with blazing multipunch combinations.
Round after round, Diaz fought with great courage, eating shots as he endured his personal version of the Bataan Death March. Finally he was tagged by a short straight left on the button that dropped him face first to the canvas. Referee Vic Drakulich called it off without a count.
"My first concern was for Diaz," Pacquiao said, echoing the thoughts of many. "I tried to pick him up."
Diaz, who received $850,000 for the fight, seemed to truly believe that he could win entering the fight.
Nevertheless, his promoter, Top Rank, has guided him toward their superstars (Erik Morales, Pacquiao) since he was awarded the title. So, not to take anything away from Diaz, who is a tough kid and a nice one at that, but let's face it, his greatest talent was that WBC belt.
How Pacquiao will fare with the likes of Nate Campbell, Juan Diaz, Joel Casamayor in a loaded division is a legitimate question, but one to address on another day. Many questions will be resolved in early September when Campbell-Joan Guzman, Juan Manuel Marquez-Casamayor and Diaz-Michael Katsidis take place.
It should be noted that part of the spin to sell this fight was that Diaz is a natural 140-pounder and Pacquiao started his career in 1995 at 106 pounds, where 135 pounds might be pushing it for him. Would his power carry? Would Diaz overpower him?
After the fight, Freddie Roach said the following: "He's getting a little bigger, a little bit older and maybe that (135) is a more natural weight for him. I think fighters should fight at their natural weight."
Speed is power and while Pacquiao might not have one-punch power at 135 pounds, the cumulative effect of that blinding hand speed thrown in volume is going to cut 'em up and shake 'em up. Ask Diaz if he thinks Pacquiao carried his power. Diaz never had the opportunity to overpower Pacquiao because Diaz was too busy blocking punches with his face, because Pacquiao boxed so brilliantly.
The Compubox stats bear out the domination. Pacquiao landed 180 of 490 power punches, compared to 59 of 319 for Diaz. In total punches, Pacquiao connected on 230 of 788, while Diaz managed only 90 connects in 463 punches thrown.
The Undercard
Often you can order a pay-per-view event and not find a remarkable fight until the main event. This was not so here.
Titlist Steve Luevano and Mario Santiago fought to a draw in a sleeper fight for the WBO featherweight title, 117-111 Luevano, 115-113 Santiago and 114-114. At ringside, I agreed with the 114-114.
It has been said that Luevano often participates in less than crowd-pleasing bouts, yet if not for Pacquiao's performance this one might have stolen the show. Both fighters hit the deck in Round 2, but Luevano managed to win the first four rounds on all of the cards.
Santiago showed a lot of courage and fought his way back, dominating the middle and late rounds.
"I thought I kind of won the fight but I still have my title," Luevano said.
He landed 215 shots compared to 214 for Santiago, and had a slight edge in power punches 136-124. The fight could have gone either way and there would have been few complaints with the decision. That was a good thing compared to what was to follow shortly.
Monte Barrett ended our National Nightmare and KO'd Tye Fields at 57 seconds of Round 1, putting an end to that particular pretender.
"Look how much money I just saved you," Barrett told promoter Bob Arum at the press conference after the fight.
Francisco Lorenzo won the WBC interim super featherweight belt by disqualification at 2:43 of the fourth round over Humberto Soto, a 9-1 favorite, in the controversy of the night, and maybe the year.
This fight had increased importance because that is the title held by Pacquiao, which he will certainly soon relinquish.
Soto was dominating in the early going, looking bigger and better than his opponent. In the fourth, a left uppercut from Soto dropped Lorenzo and it seemed to be the end. Lorenzo beat the count and Soto battered him with a torrent of punches.
Referee Joe Cortez, whose stock is dropping like the Dow, stepped in to stop the contest and apparently save the bloodied Lorenzo.
Lorenzo dropped to his knees and Soto threw a last shot that glanced off the top of Lorenzo's head.
Lorenzo was soon flat on his back for several minutes while Cortez discussed the situation with the Nevada commission in the worst acting performance this side of Miami CSI's David Caruso.
The ruling was that Soto hit Lorenzo on the back of the head, which wasn't supported on replay. The crowd loudly booed the decision of a DQ victory for a man whose recovery -- from being flat on the floor to parading around the ring with his gloves raised in the winner's pose -- was beyond credibility.
Now just think, Lorenzo, a true thespian, is about to take over Pacquiao's title.
It should have been a Soto TKO. Maybe it should have been a no-decision if you believed that bunk that Lorenzo was serving up at the very worst. A DQ? No way!
What's next for Pacquiao?
It's all in the interpretation. When Pacquiao was asked about a possible upcoming fight with Ricky Hatton, he deferred to Arum, who said, "Manny will defend his lightweight title. Hatton is scheduled to fight Paulie Malignaggi in November. So, if we're going to do a Ricky Hatton fight, it won't be until sometime next year."
Many took that as "Hatton in '09" but I only heard the "if." After all, they just found out that Pacquiao is a bona fide lightweight and they would like to cash in first and foremost.
Who will be Manny's next opponent?
Arum responded with: "Whoever it is will thrill everybody, believe me. Everyone has been waiting for this fight and hopefully we will be able to deliver it, and the fight will be in November."
With so many of the top dogs in the lightweight division facing off in September, my guess is that Arum is referring to Edwin Valero.
Notes
- Jorge Arce, in an impromptu men's room interview, said he expects to face flyweight titlist Nonito Donaire, who signed with Top Rank last week, in late September, which validates a previous source. In fact, I heard that it might be a doubleheader with Fernando Montiel (possibly giving up his WBO belt) taking on WBC super flyweight titlist Cristian Mijares.
- Look for James Kirkland to sign with Top Rank this week.
- The attendance was a disappointing 8,362. Arum blamed President Bush and the ever-rising energy costs. I'm curious about the all important PPV sales. Will the travel costs encourage more people to order from the sofa, or in a suffering economy, is boxing too much of a luxury?
- Before we close, I would be remiss if I didn't thank my colleague, Mario Ortega Jr., for making this one of my most enjoyable trips. The prolific Ortega put out so much copy that I was able to lay back and enjoy the ride. I can't thank him enough. Some people think that the internet doesn't develop up-and-coming writers. Mario is Exhibit A that this is no longer the case. If that young man keeps working at it as he is today, he's going to be one of the top boxing writers around for a long, long time.
