After being forced to miss a day of workout, David Diaz woke up early Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) and ran like a man possessed as he tried to make up for the non-training day that was consumed by the perfunctory press conference organized by Top Rank Promotion.
Diaz graced a press conference last Tuesday with Pacquiao at The Westin Bonaventure in downtown Los Angeles and flew back to Chicago afterwards, preventing him from training although he ran just before the luncheon event at the Catalina Ballroom just so he won?t skip a beat in his training schedule.
“David never let up when he got back in the gym,” said his publicist Bernie Bahrmasel, who was joined in the whirlwind visit to Southern California by trainer Jim Strickland.
“I am glad to be back training,” said Diaz, the reigning World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight king, who kicked off training camp last April 19, the day Top Rank formally announced that he would be staking his WBC 135-lb throne for the second time against the Filipino southpaw.
Pacquiao, who arrived in the US Monday night, is the current WBC superfeather (130 lbs) titleholder and is bidding to become not only a four-division ruler but the first Filipino to capture the world lightweight championship.
Next week, Pacquiao will travel to Chicago on a private plane Top Rank chairman Bob Arum has leased for his personal use to drum up more interest for the pay-per-view card dubbed “Lethal Combination.”
A similar gig is planned in San Francisco where Pacquiao is expected to be mobbed again by his countrymen just as they did when he dropped by the Bay Area during the buildup for the Juan Manuel Marquez rematch early this year.
Pacquiao is the heavy favorite owing to his obvious advantage in speed, the quality of his opponents as well as Diaz?s aggressive style but ringsiders are of the opinion that Diaz, who is a natural lightweight, has genuine chances of scoring an upset.
Diaz earned the right to bang with Pacquiao when he beat Mexican Ramon Montano in the undercard of the Pacquiao-Marquez rematch.
Montano was one of Pacquiao?s sparring partner for the Marquez bout and he usually was the guy who Pacquiao toyed with after a rough session with another sparmate.
