David Diaz fought Manny Pacquiao and lost to him by TKO in 2008. He did not win any rounds according to the judges’ scorecards, and he was beaten thoroughly.
Diaz told HBO Insider about his experience facing Manny Pacquiao. He says he felt like he had a good chance of winning the fight … until the bell rang. That’s when the hail storm began.
I’ve honestly never fought anybody like that before in my life. I faced some pretty fast guys in the amateurs, like Zab Judah for example, but nobody with Pacquiao’s combination of speed and accuracy. Most fast fighters just throw a lot of punches without worrying about whether they all land; Manny isn’t like that. He hits you with one shot, and then the next shot is coming right behind it, and that one lands too. It’s just unbelievable.
And his defense was better than I expected too. He never stayed in one spot. I’d have to go chase him down all the time. I wanted to get him in the corner or get him on the ropes, but he was very elusive.
I would compare the experience of fighting Pacquiao to getting caught in a hail storm. You know how hail comes down really hard and fast? It won’t knock you out, but it’s annoying and it’s just hitting you all the time and there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s how I felt fighting Pacquiao. His punches aren’t necessarily hurting you, but you’re caught in a hail storm and you’re just like, “Man, where the hell is it coming from?” If I tried to keep my right hand up to block the left hand, then I left the other side open and he just kept finding ways to hit me.
Diaz admitted he can’t say Pacquiao doesn’t punch hard considering he was knocked down, but he says it was the punches he wasn’t expecting that were the difference. Either way, this is a nice portrayal of what it’s like to face Manny Pacquiao. And to provide some background, it’s not like Diaz is a scrub. He’s 36-4 in his career and he’s beaten a world-class fighter like Erik Morales. But that’s how good Manny Pacquiao is — he makes world-class fighters look helpless.
Glove touch to Deadspin
