By Thomas Gerbasi
“Come on Dad, let’s go home.”
David Diaz, not even a teenager yet, wasn’t thinking about world championships as he stood at the bus stop during another typically brutal winter day in Chicago. He just wanted to be back where it was warm.
“Nah, let’s just wait a little bit longer for the bus,” said his father, Anselmo. “If it doesn’t get here in ten minutes, then we’ll go home.”
The father knew what it took to be a champion in the hardest game. What happened in the gym was one thing; what happened outside of it would be what molded you. It would have been easy to walk home through the snow and back home. To wait for that bus in the cold, and then go to the gym and hone your skills – that would separate the men from the boys.
Father and son waited for that bus.
Flash forward to June 28, 2008. David Diaz, now 32 and the WBC lightweight champion of the world, was in a fight many saw as unwinnable. Facing the pound for pound king, Manny Pacquiao, Diaz was seen as not being fast or powerful enough to stop the onslaught of the Filipino icon.
And as the rounds piled up, the critics were proven to be right. Diaz didn’t have the one-punch stopping power needed to get Pacquiao’s respect, and being slower than him didn’t help matters either. But what the naysayers forgot was Diaz’ heart.
Built in his house, on the street, and in the gym in Chicago, Diaz learned that when you stop trying, the fight is already lost. So he kept trying, kept moving forward, and kept hoping.
“You have to,” he said. “Somewhere along the way he might not cover himself right and take a wrong step, and you can catch him. That was my thought – I’m gonna wear him down. He’s gonna get tired of hitting me.”
Diaz laughs. It’s the type of gallows humor that can only come with the time that heals the physical and mental wounds of such a punishing bout. Finally, in the ninth round, Pacquiao’s trademark left sent Diaz to the canvas, prompting referee Vic Drakulich to halt the bout.
“His speed was awesome, and you can’t deny that,” said Diaz of Pacquiao. “That guy was awesome and you have to give credit where it’s due. He’s a bad boy.”
Many assumed that was it for Diaz. He had won multiple Golden Gloves titles, competed as a member of the 1996 United States Olympic team in the Atlanta Games, and despite taking a two-year break early in his pro career, he won a world title and made a nice payday for the Pacquiao bout. There was nothing left to prove, but he wasn’t about to leave.
“You don’t want to go out like that,” said Diaz. “At least I don’t. I went out on my back (against Pacquiao), but I don’t want to leave the sport like that.”
But there would be no hasty comeback, the type that usually leads to a quick loss, then another, and then one of boxing’s typical unhappy endings.
Diaz, 33, still young and still capable of competing at a high level (the Pacquiao loss was only his second, and his first since 2005), took a break, spent time with his wife and kids, got knee surgery, and then plotted his return. That return was to be against Jesus Chavez last September. It was going to be a good ol’ scrap between two good ol’ Chicago boys, and while Chavez wasn’t in his prime, he was going to have enough in the tank to let Diaz know if he still had enough left.
Diaz did, pounding out a hard-fought ten round majority decision win. The comeback had begun, and he settled in for the long haul, but in February, he got a late-notice call to face Humberto Soto for the vacant WBC lightweight crown this weekend on the Manny Pacquiao vs Joshua Clottey undercard in Dallas. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“I did not think I was gonna get back this fast,” he admits. “I knew it was gonna take hard work, but we’re here and we’re gonna take advantage of this opportunity. You don’t get second chances to fight for a title again, so this is a golden opportunity and we’ve got to try and take advantage of it.”
Just like that, Diaz is back in the grind and it’s like he never left. Ask him if he’s tired of the old routine following his nearly 15-month break between the Pacquiao and Chavez fights, and he smiles.
“I’ll get tired in about two years,” he said. “I think I’ve got two good years left.”
First, he’s got Soto, a former two-division champion who is now testing the 135 pound waters. His debut at lightweight? A shutout win over Chavez last December. But Diaz feels he has the size and style necessary to dictate what happens between the ropes on Saturday night.
“He seems to be a guy who only likes to turn it on in the last 30 seconds of the round, so the first two minutes and 30 seconds of the round, we’re gonna have to pressure him to do certain things that he might not want to do,” said Diaz. “If we can get him to do that and capitalize, I think we’ll be all right. We’ve got to be prepared and get ready to throw the kitchen sink at him. We’re ready for anything and everything.”
And if all goes well, Diaz just may walk away with another world title belt, an almost improbable dream for a fighter who once considered just turning pro to be the ultimate dream.
“What a rollercoaster, huh?” he asks. “It’s life – ups and downs, some good some bad, but you take it all in because it’s part of you. Hopefully, people are proud of what I did. I know my dad is, and he’s the one I want to be proud of me.”
So did that bus ever come like his father said it would?
“Needless to say, every time I’d tell him that I wanted to go home, seven minutes later the bus came,” said Diaz. “It’s all been worth it, and to see what we’ve done, it’s awesome.”
