Diaz trains, Manny goes scuba diving

From his home in Chicago, David Diaz talked about winning, while Manny Pacquiao, who was in far-away Cebu, took his first crack at scuba diving.

Diaz, who stakes his WBC lightweight crown against Pacquiao on June 28 in Las Vegas, is now in his second week of training for the biggest fight of his life.

He gets up and runs at the crack of dawn, then spends two to three hours in the gym until noon. The rest of the day he said he only thinks of Pacquiao.

“I’ve been wanting a big fight like this for a long time. I feel pretty good about this fight. Pacquiao is a top fighter in his prime but when I look at him I see a guy I can hit real easy.

“I see a guy I can beat. I honestly feel that,” he told Ron Borges of The Sweet Science, as he looked forward to facing the reigning WBC super-featherweight champion.

There’s so much at stake for Diaz, a wide-bodied champion who feels he can stand toe-to-toe with probably the hardest puncher in boxing today.

Diaz is in for the biggest paycheck of his boxing career that included a stint in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics for the US team. He can get a million bucks for this one.

“I’m finally getting paid what champions get paid. This is a fight where I can set up my kids for college. It’s about making their life better,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao tried his hand at scuba diving in Lapu-Lapu City yesterday.

The 29-year-old Filipino, who plans to start training in Los Angeles on May 10, went as deep as 60 feet in his first dive that started at 10 a.m. and lasted 55 minutes.

After a lunch break, he and his buddies took another dive, this one for about 30 minutes. According to his secretary, Bren Evangelio, Pacquiao had a great experience.

“He liked it so much he ordered two sets of scuba gear right away,” said Evangelio of the boxer who is scheduled to fly back home to Gen. Santos City today.

Pacquiao was in Cebu for two days to grace the anniversary of the Battle of Mactan where he played the role of Lapu-Lapu in a short play.