According to published reports, Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao is in Los Angeles for a meeting with Top Rank Chairman Bob Arum to decide on his next opponent. The top contenders have been narrowed down to WBC lightweight title holder David Diaz and WBC super featherweight belt holder Juan Manuel Marquez. And, in the past few days, the Manila Times, the Manila Bulletin, and a number of websites have been reporting that Diaz, a Top Rank fighter, has the inside track.
Whether this is the work of ambitious publicists or a leak in the discussions remains to be seen. Bob Arum is said to favor Diaz and no one in the business is better at getting out the words that he wants to get out.
It would seem on the surface that Marquez would be the most logical opponent since the two have unfinished business from their controversial draw in early 2004. And at this point Marquez has to be considered the last of the elite 130 pounders with the retirements of Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera.
Minor candidates Humberto Soto and Joan Guzman eliminated each other last weekend, the former by losing and the latter by running.
It?s possible that the Diaz talk is simply a smokescreen for negotiations with the 33 year old Marquez. Golden Boy, the promoter for Marquez is also the co-promoter for Pacquiao, although apparently the silent partner. Marquez out priced himself for a rematch after their first fight and has been campaigning for the fight with Manny, even indicating that he would lessen his demands to make the fight.
The lightweight division is loaded with potential opponents for Pacquiao, as well as potential landmines, so you wonder if he would be overreaching. No Filipino fighter has ever won the 135 pound crown.
The problem for Manny at 135 wouldn?t be so much David Diaz, 31-1-1 (17), but Juan Diaz, who is the best in the division and holds the WBA, IBF, AND WBO belts. Once Manny leaps to lightweight, it would be difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube, and the overall competition there is far superior to the group at 130. Even the greatest of fighters historically become somewhat diluted when they move up against bigger and stronger opponents. Once he gets past David Diaz the risks increase considerably against others at 135.
Diaz was last seen in August winning a close unanimous decision over faded Mexican superstar Erik Morales in Diaz? hometown of Chicago. Morales decked Diaz in the first round and gave a spirited effort in the evenly fought battle, but came up just short in his effort to win a title in a fourth weight division.
Pacquiao, by comparison, lost a decision to Morales in the first fight of their trilogy, and then stopped the Mexican twice in their final two bouts, the last a crushing third round demolition.
David Diaz employs a pressure style but is a tad deficient in his defensive ability. He?ll be right there in front of Manny and will likely get whacked out. Marquez, on the other hand, is a brilliant ring technician who knows every trick in the trade, and is as evenly competitive with Manny as their 2004 draw would indicate.
Diaz gets little respect. He was handed the title because Joel Casamayor was stripped because he was exploring his options and didn?t sign to fight the interim titlist Diaz fast enough to suit the WBC. Well that and because, I believe, the WBC thought that he was a perfect patsy for Morales. Yet, the defending titlist Diaz received a relatively paltry $350,000 to fight Morales in their pay per view match.
David Diaz wants Pacquiao badly for the opportunity to earn that big purse. Will the decision be based on who is the lowest bidder?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
The article on BBC Sport was titled, ?I?m better than Ali–Mayweather.? Well at first I thought that he must be saying that he was a better dancer than Laila, who was in the finals of ?Dancing with the Stars? last year, while Floyd was axed early in this year?s competition. But it read that he meant Muhammad Ali, so then I figured that he means that he can take the 65 year old Ali today.
But the article also read that Floyd thinks he is also better than Sugar Ray Robinson and said, ?I can quit today and be known as the greatest fighter that ever lived. I respect what Robinson and Ali did for the sport. But I am the greatest, and this is my time.?
First of all, Robinson was even a better dancer than Floyd. He moved up from welterweight to middleweight because he had run out of opponents. Sugar Ray KO?d 108 opponents and won 173 fights. He was a five-time middleweight champ, one of the all time best at 160, and unquestionably the best ever at 147. Robinson fought the best in the game in three decades.
It?s too early to evaluate Floyd in terms of all-time status, but it?s safe to say that at age 30, unless he does something miraculous in his final years of activity, his name will never be spoken in the same breath with Ali and Robinson.
Somehow Floyd seems to have become convinced that his boxing success translates to popularity and respect. Is he just deceiving us, trying to hype the Ricky Hatton fight, or has he been deceiving himself for believing what amounts to boxing heresy?
?EL FEROZ? FROZE IN ?THE BRAWL?
Who?d a thunk it? Contrary to most prognostications, Ricardo Mayorga and Fernando Vargas fought to a decision at the Stapes Center in Los Angeles before 10,365 on Friday night. Mayorga dropped Vargas in the first and eleventh rounds en route to a majority decision, 113-113, 114-112, and 115-111. We saw it 115-111 for Mayorga.
Fought at a catch weight of 166, both participants entered the ring at 164, the most in both men?s careers.
Mayorga set the pace in the first round, coming out firing with huge bombs. Vargas? legs appeared to betray him from the start and in addition to the two knockdowns he was staggered on several occasions early on from Mayorga?s hard shots.
A punch drew blood from Vargas? left eye in the third, continuing through the fight but did not become a factor. Vargas began to find the range with some overhand rights in the middle rounds and was coming on in the fight when a Mayorga right sent him tumbling backwards in the closing seconds of round 11. That knockdown may well have been a three point swing in the scoring.
Both men kept a fast pace with sustained action for 12 rounds. Defense rarely came into play in this one. Mayorga fought with a controlled aggression so unlike the wild amateurish style that he has employed so often in past fights. Who would ever think that the words ?discipline? and ?control? could ever be used to describe a Mayorga fight? Vargas, as mentioned, didn?t have the legs and also showed some balance problems.
Obviously you can?t lose 100 pounds for a fight without it having some adverse impact on your body.
After all the taunting and tormenting of the past few months, both men should be credited for putting on an entertaining although not particularly skillful fight.
Vargas officially announced his retirement following the fight. He finishes his career at 26-5 (22). The victorious Mayorga raises his record to 28-6-1, 1 NC, and 22 KO?s. He had said prior to the fight that he intended to return to his best weight of 147.
