Freddie Roach is looking at lightweight champion Juan Diaz and not super-featherweight king Juan Manuel Marquez as Manny Pacquiao?s next opponent.
?Juan Diaz wants to say that Manny has only fought old, washed-up fighters? Who has Juan Diaz beaten?? Roach told boxing chronicler Brad Cooney yesterday.
?We want to move up to 135 pounds and take his belt,? added Roach, fanning reports that Pacquiao might move a division higher and take a crack at the lightweight title.
Diaz is the reigning WBA, WBO and IBF lightweight champion, and is one of eight fighters lining up for a date with the Filipino superstar scheduled to climb back to the ring on March 15.
As ?old and washed-up? Diaz must be referring to Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera, legendary fighters who after losing to Pacquiao have eventually gone into retirement.
Diaz scored a ninth-round knockout over Julio Diaz last month and is 33-0 against names like Acelino Freitas, Fernando Angulo, Arthur Cruz, Billy Erwin, Jose Miguel Cotto and RP?s Randy Suico.
Pacquiao has yet to decide who he wants to fight next, saying he?s ready to face anyone, including Marquez, ?if the price is right.? He said he might decide next month.
Others in the list are Humberto Soto, Edwin Valero, Joan Guzman, Joel Casamayor and even Juarez.
Marquez, who figured in a controversial draw with Pacquiao in 2004, is aching for a rematch, but is reportedly asking ?too much? for him to defend his title against the Filipino.
Marquez, according to reports, only got $500,000 in his title fight with Rocky Juarez the other day, a far cry from the $3 million Pacquiao received for facing Barrera in a non-title fight.
?He should agree to a big, flat amount or he has disqualified himself,? said Top Rank president and Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum.
Marquez turned down an offer of $750,000 to face Pacquiao in a rematch a couple of years back, and wound up facing lesser opponents for a much lesser price.
Now, he?s asking for the moon.
?I want Manny Pacquiao,? Marquez, 33, declared after beating Juarez last Sunday. ?I know Manny Pacquiao said ?I am a Mexican killer.? But he has not proven it. He has to prove that to me.?
Even Marquez? promoter, Oscar dela Hoya of Golden Boy, is aching for a rematch between the two great super-featherweights.
?If you want to be called the best at 130 pounds, you have to go through Marquez. It?s a match-up that the whole world wants to watch. It?s a match-up that has to happen,? he said.
Arum, if in case a rematch with Marquez is shelved anew, is looking at another Diaz, the WBC lightweight champion and Top Rank fighter Juan Diaz, as Pacquiao?s next foe.
?I can make this fight,? said Arum, adding that Juan Diaz is a fighter Pacquiao should face ?later and not now.? But he said it?s all up to Pacquiao and Roach to decide on the next fight.
Juan Diaz is under Don King.
