David Diaz insisted it was Manny Pacquiao’s blistering handspeed that gave him just too much to handle in their WBC lightweight title bout in Las Vegas on Saturday evening.
The former world champion, who showed incredible heart in refusing to give in to Pacquiao’s superb, unrelenting two-handed assault, admitted he was outclassed on the night.
“It was not so much his power, just that he was really quick,” Diaz said on Setanta Sports after the bout. “I couldn’t match him. His speed was incredible.
“[The cut] doesn’t affect me. I get cut so many times it’s just second nature. It was just he was so fast.”
Of the sensational one-punch knockout that stopped the fight in the ninth, Diaz admitted it came at a point when he was getting rare encouragement.
“I saw him getting a bit tired at the end,” Diaz said. “I was thinking ‘he doesn’t hit that hard’ and then I’m on the floor thinking: ‘What the heck?.’
“He’s a great, great fighter and sometimes you have to hold your hands up and say you got beaten by the better man.”
Asked what he would do next, Diaz responded: “I’m definitely going to take a couple of months off and see what happens.”
His promoter Bob Arum suggested afterwards that after a rest period Diaz would return to the ring against a slower opponent – something that, if stuck to, would rule out Amir Khan’s prospects of meeting the Mexican American.
“It was a really gutsy performance,” Arum said. “The next time we’ll get someone a little slower.”
