Manny sees best of Diaz in June bout

Manny Pacquiao believes that the real David Diaz will show up on June 28 at Mandalay Bay, and not the one who defeated Ramon Montano in the undercard of Pacquiao’s great fight against Juan Manuel Marquez last March 15.

“I know that he was hiding something,” said Pacquiao, who is just waiting for the final detail of this coming fight with Diaz to be ironed out before he puts his signature on the dotted line.

Pacquiao won the WBC super-featherweight crown with a split decision over Marquez, but has decided to move up in weight and challenge Diaz for the WBC lightweight crown.

Tickets to the fight set at Mandalay Bay and dubbed “Lethal Combination” will be out starting tomorrow. They are pegged at $600, $400, $300, $200 and $100. Diaz warmed up for the coming fight with a convincing 10-round decision over Montano, one of Pacquiao’s sparring partners during his two-month training for the Marquez bout.

Pacquiao, however, was not convinced that it was the best Diaz that he saw.

“If what we saw out there was the best of Diaz then we can handle him pretty well. But he was holding back something. He made peanuts of his opponent (Montano),” said Pacquiao.

The Filipino champion plans to start serious training in Los Angeles on the first week of May. For the meantime, he’s catching up on his studies in Gen. Santos City, and said he’s keeping in shape by running in the morning.

“Tell him to start training, too,” Pacquiao said recently, referring to Diaz.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s latest TV commercial with Nike is already out in some parts of the world except the Philippines. The one-minute commercial begins with NBA superstar Kobe Bryant working out at the gym, followed by clips of tennis superstars Maria Sharapova and Roger Federrer, and Pacquiao taping his hands.  – Abac Cordero