By Chris Robinson
Recently I spoke with respected trainer and cut man Miguel Diaz, as he shared his thoughts on the recent confusion taking place in Manny Pacquiao’s corner between he and strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza.
Diaz is a man full of insight, having working in the sport over fifty years with countless world champions, and I didn’t want to direct the entire focus of our conversation towards his spat with Ariza. Knowing that Diaz had played a role in the Pacquiao-Marquez III affair as well as that night’s undercard bout between junior welterweight champion Timothy Bradley and Joel Casmayor while also working the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Peter Manfredo bout one week later, I was sure to get his take on those three encounters.
Pacquiao edged Marquez in another intense duel, a fight many felt he should have lost, and his future remains uncertain despite recent rumors that a May 5th date with Floyd Mayweather Jr. may be next.
Bradley pulled out an awkward stoppage over Casamayor on the same evening, successfully defending his WBO belt, but there’s no question that bigger fights lay ahead for him. Bradley has shown interest in a fight with Pacquiao but some would prefer him to settle his score with IBF/WBA champion Amir Khan first.
Chavez Jr. has blossomed as a fighter and his halting of Manfredo was one of his finer performances to date. Diaz spoke on what the future holds for the Sinaloa, Mexico native and whether bouts with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez or Sergio Martinez make sense.
Continue reading for all of Diaz’s thoughts…
Hard to judge Pacquiao-Marquez III…
“If you want to know what I think about the fight, my opinion in, in the corner I’m not a great judge especially when the fight is that close. Especially when, by the fourth round, our fighter started getting cuts again. You look more into what you can do in order to save the fight than just judging the fight. The fight was so close that, to me, it could be either way. Most of the Mexican people tell me that Marquez won. And the other people, some say that Marquez won and some say that Pacquiao won. But in my opinion the fight could go either way one or two points. No more than that. But eventually Pacquiao won the fight in the last two rounds.”
Why Pacquiao hasn’t looked as explosive his last two fights…
“What I think, maybe it’s a combination of a lot of things. Probably because of the age, probably because I heard Ariza say in the last fight that he over trained in that last fight. You guys quote it in all your comments. Ariza said that they don’t do is the way they used to do before. That it’s different. For this fight I didn’t even go to Los Angeles to see the workout because I was too busy with three Columbians and I was very busy with my Cuban guys, [Luis] Franco and [Rances] Barthelemy. That’s why I never went to Los Angeles to the Wild Card Gym like we always do.”
Whether we will see Pacquiao face Marquez or Mayweather next…
“My first impression was Pacquiao-Marquez IV. Right after the fight, everything indicated that. Now, I don’t know. Because whatever is going on, I don’t have any access to all of that.”
Working with former champ Joel Casamayor for his November 12th bout with Tim Bradley…
“I trained him. That was, not a favor, because I got paid, but a compromise that I acquired with Luis DeCubas Jr. He told me that the only person he could trust was me. Casamayor came too late to Las Vegas. He only got three and a half weeks to work. I don’t know what he did before. We only had sparring for like thirty rounds.”
Impressed by Tim Bradley?
“Not in that fight. He was very smart. He tried to figure out Casamayor, knowing that Casamayor was such a smart fighter and maybe his corner was telling him ‘Be careful, maybe he’s playing possum’. If I was in his corner that’s what I would have told him. And when he figured it out that Casamayor was no possible match on him, he started opening up in the seventh round. And I told Junior that I was going to stop the fight and he said ‘Give him a little bit and see if something happens’. It’s like when a person is going to die because he has cancer or whatever, one day he is looking good and the next day he dies. I said that if he was going to get hit three times in a row that I was going to stop the fight and this is what happened. I jumped in and stopped the fight.”
Why it’s hard to look at Bradley as a potential superstar…
“Superstar is a very big word. The superstars is one or two guys in every decade, you know what I mean? That’s because in those years, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, the old Mike McCallum, those are superstars. Timothy Bradley is not a superstar but he can become a superstar if he beats the guys that he is supposed to beat. If the Khan fight happens and he beats him, if the Mayweather fight happens and he beats him, if the Pacquiao fight happens and he beats him, then he will be a superstar.”
Watching Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. dismantle Peter Manfredo…
“Regardless if Peter Manfredo was tailor-made for him, that was the right opponent, he looked very, very impressive to me. Because, first of all, he jabbed and never in my career I saw him jab. And he used the right hand from the outside very efficiently. I never saw him throw the right hand the way he did it. If you ask me from 1 to 10, I would give him an 8 ½.”
Chavez’s benefits from working with Freddie Roach…
“No question about it. And also, I have to say that about Ariza. He probably is influencing the kid to be training. Like the kid says, I am no longer a spoiled child. But right now he understands that he has to train, that he has to work, that he has to put his body in condition, and the performance was fantastic.”
Whether Chavez Jr. should face Saul Alvarez or Sergio Martinez next…
“Chavez Jr. right now is above Alvarez. Martinez is a tough cookie and it’s more difficult for Chavez to fight Martinez that it is Alvarez. Because [Martinez] is a cutie pie. He’s a guy that’s been around, he prepares the fighter for the punch, he’s done a couple of things before to see how the fighters react for the punch. Like he did with Paul Williams for instance.”
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at Trimond@aol.com
