By Ronnie Nathanielsz

The manager and trainer of former WBC world lightweight champion David Diaz has said he is willing to appear as a witness during a jury trial on the lawsuit filed by pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao against those who accused him of being in performance enhancing drugs with any evidence whatsoever.

In an interview with Chicago-based Filipino reporter Joseph G. Lariosa, Jim Strickland said that if Pacquiao asks him to testify how a previous opponent feels after being beaten by Pacquiao he said “I would certainly rise to that question, I would respond to it in the way as far as I am concerned. I don’t see any reason of accusing Manny of using illegal drugs in our fight.”

Lariosa believes that Jim Strickland’s backing of the Filipino pound-for-pound champion carries some weight not only because he is the manager and trainer of the former world lightweight champion David Diaz who lost to Manny but also because he is a retired licensed pharmacist.

In a tape recorded phone interview with Lariosa, Strickland said Manny (Pacquiao) is right in not submitting to a blood test that will determine if he has performance-enhancing drugs in his system because at this point, “I don’t know of any quantitative measure that has been held up to scrutiny and the exam and how much is a fighter enhanced when drug (steroid) is taken.”

Strickland said Pacquiao beat Diaz “fair and square” and they never attributed Manny’s victory to Manny’s use of  “performance enhancing drug.”

He said Manny was right in rejecting the Olympic standard of blood testing because “such requirement is not mandated” by the Nevada Boxing Commission, which has jurisdiction over the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight that has now been scrapped.

He said that should the Nevada Boxing Commission changes its rules by requiring blood test by all means Manny or any boxer should abide by the rules. Otherwise, the respected manager/trainer said, Manny “should not be singled out for blood testing unless the boxing commission feels that way and until there is proof.”