On June 28, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Pacquiao defeated David Díaz via ninth-round knockout to become the WBC lightweight champion. With the victory, Pacquiao became the only Filipino and Asian boxer to win four major titles in four weight classes and also became the first Filipino fighter to ever win a world title at lightweight.[22][23] The fight ended at 2:23 of the ninth round and was viewed by 8,362 spectators.
Bob Arum announced that Pacquiao is most likely to fight November 15[24] versus 130-lb Venezuelan champion Edwin Valero or Humberto Soto in Planet Hollywood, and he also mentioned the name of WBA, WBO, and IBF lightweight champ Nate Campbell. "I can fight in November," Pacquiao stated, "Who I fight is the job of my promoter (Bob Arum)." Diaz had his best payday, $850,000, and Pacquiao earned at least $3 million.
Bob Arum reported that the Pacquiao-David Diaz fight which made $ 12.5-M (250,000 pay-per-view subscriptions at $ 49.95 each), paled in comparison to the 400,000 in the Marquez showdown. The sales reached over $20 million. Pacquiao’s 3 classic fights with Erik Morales earned a combined sales of 1 million pay-per-view hits. After HBO and Top Rank get their share, Pacquiao and Diaz will get theirs based on the contract, that is, in addition to the $ 3 million contract pay. Official records revealed an attendance of only 8,362 tickets of the seating capacity of 12,000.
Meanwhile, WBC president Don José Sulaimán clarified that Pacquiao is not a 5-division but 4-division world champion, because the November 2003 Barrera fight was a non-title bout.
Holding both the WBC Super Featherweight and Lightweight titles following the win, Pacquiao decided to vacate his super featherweight title in July 2008 in order to defend his lightweight crown.
Pacman is really an extraordinary boxer. Congrats Manny!!!!
ReplyDelete