David Diaz believes he can go toe-to-toe with Manny Pacquiao for 12 rounds, but he?s unsure whether he can stop the Filipino star dead in his tracks.
“I think I can stay with him for 12 rounds,” Diaz told the Bulletin yesterday shortly after his arrival in San Antonio, Texas, for a promotional tour aimed at hyping their June 28 clash at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
From the Lone Star State, Diaz will proceed to Phoenix, Arizona, before heading back to Chicago to resume his training at the JABB Gym.
Diaz, who will be staking his World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight crown for the second time, will being joined in the whirlwind tour by his trainer Jim Strickland, who was on hand when the 31-year-old Chicago native kicked off sparring sessions late last week “with four local guys.”
While Diaz is upbeat that he can take the best of Pacquiao, the current WBC super-feather titlist, he can?t categorically say if he can finish earlier than the scheduled 12-round fight.
“I don?t know, we?ll see,” said Diaz. “I?ll know after the first round after we test each other.”
“But I am doing everything to be in great shape,” added Diaz, who began training camp last April 19.
Diaz, a four-time Golden Gloves champion who saw action in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, holds a 34-1-1 win-loss-draw card with 17 knockouts and is best remembered by Filipino fight fans as the solidly-built brawler who sent Erik Morales of Mexico into retirement in August last year.
Diaz and Pacquiao are going to meet face-to-face on May 13 in Los Angeles during a press conference being put up by Top Rank chief Bob Arum.
Arum also plans to fly Pacquiao to San Francisco and other key cities with large Filipino and Mexican population as part of the promotional tour.
“Manny will be taking a private plane as part of the contract that he signed for this fight and Top Rank will take care of the transportation expenses,” said Arum last week.
Apart from the promise of a hefty paycheck that will come from the guaranteed purse, share in the box-office and pay-per-view, Pacquiao is also guaranteed a certain number of choice ringside tickets as well as a plush suite for himself and several other rooms for his entourage, family members, friends and supporters at the host hotel.
