LAS VEGAS ? Here?s Bob Arum?s advice to David Diaz: Stay in there and try to catch Manny Pacquiao in the later rounds.
The Top Rank president, who happens to be the promoter of both Diaz and Pacquiao, on Monday talked about the ways how the American champion can beat his Filipino counterpart.
?Diaz has to fight the Diaz fight,? said Arum during the press conference that took place at the sun-blessed Santa Monico Pier in Southern California.
?Diaz has to stay in there and not get discouraged and hopefully catch Manny later in the fight when Manny may be wearing down a little bit,? said the legendary boxing promoter.
Arum said Diaz can apply the same tactic he used in beating Jose Armando Santa Cruz and winning the lightweight crown in August of 2006 via a 10th-round stoppage.
In that fight, the 32-year-old Diaz barely hung on in the early rounds, and wore down Sta. Cruz before knocking him out in the 2:26 mark of the 10th.
Diaz was trailing on all scorecards when the end came.
Arum said the same thing could happen on Saturday at Mandalay Bay.
?It?s not an easy fight for Manny as he?s going up to 135 pounds. But he is the quicker guy and he?s the better technician,? said Arum.
?And I feel that at 135 pounds Manny will be better than the Manny at 130 pounds because I think he was struggling too much making weight. Now he?s happy and he?s not too much drawn trying to make the weight.?
Arum said the reason Pacquiao?s last two fights against Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez lasted the full distance was because he was ?depleting? himself making 130 lbs.
And, Arum further explained, when a boxer forces himself to make the weight, he would never be the same again even if he replenishes himself from the time he is officially weighed to the time he climbs the ring.
Then he likened Pacquiao to Miguel Cotto, the welterweight champion from Puerto Rico.
?Look at Miguel Cotto who fought too long at 140 and even though luckily he won his fights at 140 he was getting dropped, he was running out of gas, and all because he was making a weight that he really no longer could make.
?Therefore, once he got up to 147 he was a different fighter. I think you?re ?gonna see the same with Manny,? said Arum.
That, we have to see.
