By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Former World Boxing Council lightweight champion David Diaz who lost his title in a nine round battering at the hands of Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao earlier this year has cautioned Pacquiao to watch out for Humberto Soto.

Soto is being lined up by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum for a lightweight title fight against Pacquiao should last-ditch efforts to revive negotiations with Oscar De La Hoya for a December 6 Las Vegas showdown, fail.

In an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports.ph, Viva Sports and Manila Standard Today from Chicago, Diaz said “you cant take Soto for granted. He’s been in a lot of wars, a lot of great fights. He’s a tough type of fighter and he will be there to the end, up on to the last second of the twelfth round he will be there.”

Diaz said Pacquiao was "a professional person and will take care of business first” in terms of training just as hard as he did for his battle with him, adding “I’m pretty sure its going to be a great fight.”

Asked about plans for Pacquiao to take on Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton at 140 pounds sometime in May or une next year, Diaz replied “I think that will be an easy fight for Pacquiao because of the way Hatton fights.”

Diaz said Pacquiao was a pretty good boxer” citing his own experience in  the ring against the Filipino southpaw.

While Arum is working on a possible Soto fight, Pacquiao’s lawyer Franklin “Jeng” Gacal says Pacquiao had instructed him to call the Top Rank promoter “every day” to keep abreast of developments although Gacal revealed that Arum “wants Soto” for Pacquiao’s next fight.

Celebrated trainer Freddie Roach is not giving up on the effort to salvage the battle with De La Hoya which fell through over the two fighters refusal to negotiate down from their previous positions. De La Hoya insisted on a 70-30 share while Pacquiao wanted 60-40 with both sides refusing to budge.

The stance of De La Hoya upset Arum who maintained that the essence of negotiations is give-and-take while Pacquiao maintained that De La Hoya’s demand for a 70-30 split was “unconscionable.” Inside Sports learned that Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schafer wanted to keep the negotiations going but that De La Hoya was not willing to budge.

In an interview with Dennis Principe of insidesports.ph on his dzSR Sports Radio show “Sports Chat”, Roach reiterated his confidence in Pacquiao’s ability to beat De La Hoya and that he had spoken to Michael Koncz, a Pacquiao adviser who is close to Arum and told him “If Manny doesn’t win this fight you can keep my money. You don’t have to pay me. That’s how sure I am.” By all accounts Roach’s share  is substantial since the trainer reportedly earns ten percent of Pacquiao’s purse.

Roach said that he’s been told Pacquiao is too small and that he is crazy claiming that De La Hoya “can’t pull the trigger” and is slow and that Pacquiao will knock him out. Roach said “I don’t believe that. I honestly feel that Manny can beat this guy.” Roach had earlier told us that the speed and power of Pacquiao who will go after De La Hoya from different angles will prove too much.

Unlike Pacquiao and lawyer Franklin “Jeng” Gacal, Roach feels that the 70-30 split offered by De La Hoya “is not a bad deal” pointing out that it’s a “better deal than (Floyd) Mayweather Jr had and Mayweather made $22 million so you can’t say it’s a bad split.”

However, Gacal earlier noted in a conversation with us that there was no guarantee that the fight would draw two million pay-per-view buys and wondered aloud what would happen if the numbers are not delivered which would mean Pacquiao’s take would be considerably less.

Right now it is estimated by Golden Boy that Pacquiao stands to earn around $15 million which they believe is far better than he’s ever earned before.