LAS VEGAS – If David Diaz’s game plan was to wear down Manny Pacquiao’s fists with his face and take him out in the later rounds, it didn’t work.
Pacquiao finished things in spectacular fashion with a ninth-round knockout to claim the WBC lightweight championship on Saturday night in front of 8,362 at Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Pacquiao became the first Asian fighter to win world championships in four weight classes.
Pacquiao, of Manila, upped his record to 47-3-2 with 35 knockouts while Diaz, of Chicago, fell to 34-2-1 with 17 knockouts.
“Right now, I’m going to take a couple of months off,” said Pacquiao, who is next expected to set his sights on 140-pound kingpin Ricky Hatton.
Diaz had an abundance of heart and guts, but those raw materials were not enough to halt the all-out assault from the pound-for-pound king.
Diaz refused to go down for eight rounds while taking a terrible pounding, but in the end Pacquiao was too quick, too strong, too everything, and Diaz was forced to succumb.
Pacquiao finished things in the ninth round after bloodying Diaz for eight one-sided rounds.
Pacquiao used a right jab to set up a left cross that caught Diaz square on the chin. Diaz pitched face first into the canvas, and referee Vic Drakulich didn’t even bother with a count. He stopped the fight at 2:24 of the ninth round.
Pacquiao immediately went over to check on his fallen opponent.
“My first concern was for Diaz,” Pacquiao said. “I was praying he was all right. I tried to pick him up. I was so concerned.”
Pacquiao, who began his career as a 106-pounder, gave a resounding answer to those questioning if he could bring his vaunted punching power up to 135 pounds.
“It was the best I have ever seen Manny box,” Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said.
“That was our game plan. The game plan was not to stand and trade with him. Diaz is too dangerous for that. We wanted him to move in and out and box. He did everything we asked him to do.”
Diaz gave a valiant effort but found himself hopelessly outclassed against the Filipino sensation.
“His speed is what got me,” said Diaz, a 1996 U.S. Olympian. “He was really fast. I could see the punches perfectly. They were just too fast.”
It was clear Pacquiao wasn’t overlooking the 4-1 underdog from the opening bell as he set a torrid pace, landing combinations at will and setting things up with his underrated right jab.
Diaz landed his first solid shot, a left, in the second round, but Pacquiao took it well and went right back on the attack.
Pacquiao threw 114 punches in the second round, and most of them connected. Pacquiao’s right uppercuts were doing the most damage. Pacquiao opened a cut on the bridge of Diaz’s nose in that round.
The rare shot that Diaz landed did nothing to blunt Pacquiao’s non-stop attack. Pacquiao opened a nasty gash above Diaz’s right eye in the fourth round. Blood gushed from the wound as Pacquiao continued to land punches on the damaged area.
Twice the referee stopped the fight to allow the ringside doctor to look at the cut and both times Diaz was allowed to continue.
The pace slowed considerably after the fifth round, but Pacquiao continued to do damage throughout the remainder of the fight as Diaz was falling hopelessly behind on the scorecards.
“I feel much stronger and more powerful at 135 pounds,” Pacquiao said.
Humberto Soto (43-7-2, 27 KOs) of Los Mochis, Mexico, was the victim of a strange incident in his fight against Francisco Lorenzo (33-4, 15 KOs) of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, costing him the interim WBC super-featherweight title.
Lorenzo writhed around on the canvas holding the back of his head as if Soto had hit him with a baseball bat after a glancing blow to the back of the head after he hit the deck in the fourth round.
Referee Joe Cortez and Keith Kizer, executive officer of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, decided to disqualify Soto for an illegal blow to the back of the head and award the 9-1 underdog the DQ victory after they had watched numerous replays of the chaotic conclusion.
