It was a fight that went by a lot of clich?s.
Speed kills. Talent beats grit. One man was too tough for his own good.
After being knocked out in the ninth round, having amazingly stayed on his feet through eight rounds of relentless assault, David Diaz readily admitted that the speed of Manny Pacquiao was far too much for him. And we learned that Manny Pacquiao should have no trouble at 135 pounds.
The Filipino icon was sensational in his dominant win over Diaz last night, pummeling the hard-working WBC lightweight titleholder and utterly shutting him down offensively. Diaz’s only good work came from the fact that his defense was sound enough to keep him standing as long as he did, because had it been any worse, the fight could have been over in four or five rounds.
Never for a single moment was Diaz in control of the action. Pacquiao moved around the ring beautifully, punching the whole time, and Diaz had no choice but to chase after him, eating shot after shot along the way.
CompuBox numbers were grossly in Pacquiao’s favor. Manny landed 230 of his 788 punches, while Diaz connected on just 90 of 463. Manny outworked, outlanded, and simply beat the dog out of Diaz in Las Vegas. He opened up several cuts on the rugged Diaz’s face, and finally bent him to his will in the ninth with a short, precise shot that was perfectly timed and finally buckled the legs of the stubborn Mexican warrior.
A lot of folks are already comparing the fight in many ways to the 1951 encounter between Sugar Ray Robinson, who stepped up to fight Jake LaMotta, but that fight took nine rounds to turn into a massacre. This one was a blatant mismatch from the opening bell.
Pacquiao’s legend is fully defined, and was before this fight, really. He’s a Hall of Fame fighter, and now, it’s really hard to argue against him as the best pound-for-pound in the sport. Joe Calzaghe has a fine resume, but Pacquiao’s is simply better. Titles at 112, 122, 130 and now 135, wins over the likes of Barrera (twice), Morales (twice) and Marquez. When faced with lesser competition, he generally dominates these days.
Pacquiao lost at 112 to Medgoen Singsurat in September 1999. Since then, he is 21-1-2 with 18 knockouts. It’s not about being unbeaten; Pacquiao’s lone loss was to Erik Morales, which he brutally avenged two times. It’s hard to find an argument against Manny as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter out there.
As for David Diaz, I’m happy that such a good dude got a nice payday. When all is said and done, he could wind up making about $1 million. He’ll finally be able to move up from that ’91 Honda, and you know, I hope we see him get some more good fights. No, he wasn’t in Pacquiao’s league. But Diaz is going to test the durability, heart and soul of anyone that fights him. I have never seen a guy so thoroughly and obviously outclassed keep coming forward the way he did last night. Frankly, he got knocked out because he was still trying to win the fight.
