The lightweight division these days is a bit like a high school caste system with a slew of new kids. The old social order, consisting of over-hyped, talentless jocks with old school letter jackets has felt a punishing, relentless, head-on attack from the new order of invading fighters from other neighborhoods (divisions). All the while, underrepresented, ?unpopular? types have matured and caught the attention of the same sets of eyes that were always there but never bothered to notice potential.
A little less than a year ago, the lightweight battles were taking place between a bunch of guys with the last name ?Diaz.? Between Juan Diaz, Julio Diaz and David Diaz, the Lightweight Belts were all taken. After Juan crushed Julio in one of his classic, buzz saw-like performances, there were only two men standing atop the division and the class.
How times have changed: The champion list at lightweight is now Diaz-free. One of those belts, the WBA Title, has had an extremely tainted history that includes but is not limited to a title match between two under qualified opponents in Jose Alfaro and Prawet Singwancha last December. Prior to that pathetically irrelevant meeting, Juan ?The Baby Bull? Diaz actually owned the belt. Nate Campbell lifted that strip, along with two other titles, from Diaz in impressive fashion last March. The WBC belt, the last official remaining title, belongs to Manny Pacquiao, the Ring Magazine Pound for Pound King who scaled the lightweight division and snagged the last belt by machine-gunning a strong but utterly out gunned David Diaz in late June.
Pacquiao will give up his belt in December to fight Oscar De La Hoya in a cross between a legacy-free shame and a commercial freak show. Pacquiao has been commended by some for his courage in the undertaking, but attacked by others for his delusion. Meanwhile, Pacquiao?s biggest career rival in Juan Manuel Marquez chased him up the weight ladder to lightweight and promptly stopped one of the best remaining lightweights in the world in Joel Casamayor.
