Cruiserweight and Heavyweight thread.

Good news about Hrgovic hiring Pedro Diaz I had no idea who that other guy was who was training him, enlisting the services of someone like Diaz is great move.


'Croatian heavyweight star Filip Hrgović (5-0, 4 KOs) has teamed up with renowned Cuban coach Pedro Diaz ahead of his hotly anticipated homecoming fight on September 8 at the Arena Zagreb.


Starting his coaching career with the Cuban national team, Diaz enjoyed significant success in the amateur ranks guiding his countryman to 20 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals across 4 Olympic Games from 1992 and 2004.

Working with Felix Diaz, he also helped the Dominican Republic secure their only gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

In the professional ranks, Dr. Diaz, who holds a PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, has continued to excel training a host of World Champions including Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto for his 2012 super-fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr, former WBO and WBA Super Bantamweight Champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and WBC Cruiserweight Champion Grigory Drozd.

“Pedro Diaz is a very successful and experienced coach,” said Hrgovic. “I look forward to working with him as I continue my development in the professional ranks. My aim is to become World Champion, and I believe Pedro is the right man to help me achieve this.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Bronze Medallist will travel to Miami this weekend where he will spend a month before returning to Zagreb to complete his training.

"On September 8, I will walk out in front of my home fans at the Arena Zagreb. For this fight, I must be in the best possible shape to provide a great victory for the Croatian people,” he says. “I am taking my preparations very seriously. One month in Miami will help me reach optimum condition before I return to Zagreb to complete my training."

Yousef Hasan will continue to be an important part of the 26 year-old’s training team working alongside Diaz to ensure Hrgović is in top shape for his Croatian debut.

“I would like to thank Yousef for being with me from the beginning of my professional career,” said Hrgović. “Together we decided it would be necessary to have someone with more experience in the corner. Yousef will continue as assistant coach and will remain as always a valuable member of my training team.”


Pedro Luis Diaz Benitez was a long-time trainer and director of the Cuban national team before leaving the country in 2000. He is well-studied and has written numerous publications on sports science and condition training. Among his credentials is a Ph.D. in Pedagogical Sciences, President of the AIBA in Scientific Commission for America, and the ex-professor in University Sports in Cuba. For his performance in High Performance Sport, he was awarded the Olympic Merit Medal. He was Technical Director of the Olympic High Performance Centre in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Ecuadorian Olympic Committee. He too advised boxing in the Republic of China, winning for the first time the Asian Games, with 4 gold and 4 silver medals and has served as a technical advisor for GYM (Groupe Yvon Michel) Promotions.

Fighters Trained

• Roamer Alexis Angulo
• Ivan Baranchyk
• Joel Casamayor (amateur)
• Miguel Cotto
• Luis Cruz
• Felix Diaz
• Grigory Drozd
• Guillermo Rigondeaux
• Felix Savon (amateur)
• Odlanier Solis

Famous coach Pedro Diaz took part in five games before he started working with professionals. Today, the magazine The Ring instead of Best and Faced presented us the Best I Trained questionnaire for a change.

Diaz had to finish his career after a car accident with a record of 78-9 in the Olympic box. Then he took up training youth, until he became a member of a wide training staff and took part in four games with the representation of Cuba - from Barcelona (1992) to Athens (2004). At that time, Cuban boxers reached as many as 20 gold Olympic medals, 6 silver and 3 bronze. He was also the second coach of the team at six World Championships (28 gold discs, 12 silver and 9 bronze). In Beijing (2008) he led pugilists from Dominican Republic and Felix Diaz stood on the highest step of the podium.

- Then he wanted to cooperate with professionals, but unfortunately in Cuba professional boxing is forbidden. This thought has matured in me since 1999 - says a world-class trainer who settled in Florida. Here are the players who are best mentioned in the The Ring poll.

Best I've Trained - Pedro Diaz ( June 2018 )

BEST JAB
Leonardo Martinez Fiss: He was a great Cuban boxer that really impressed me with his jab. He had an injury on his right shoulder that prevented him from using that hand for a long time, so he developed incredible skills with his left hand. He was the first Cuban boxer to reach 100 victories without losing.

BEST DEFENSE
Guillermo Rigondeaux: He is a boxer with incredible reflexes, technical skills, leg movement, and great sense of distance and coordination. In my opinion, he stands out as one of the best skilled and defensive boxers I have worked with.

FASTEST HANDS
Rigondeaux: Rigondeaux also has the fastest hands and precision when he throws punches.

BEST FOOTWORK
Julio Gonzalez: Julio is one of the most technical boxers that Cuban boxing has had – excellent hand and foot coordination. He has been indisputably one of the best fighters I have coached in terms of footwork.

BEST CHIN
Gregory Drozd: I have trained several strong boxers but because of his dedication and discipline, I would say Gregory was a boxer with great strength and assimilation.

SMARTEST
Miguel Cotto: I think that intelligence in boxing should be determined by many factors. It is interrelated with the competitive results. That’s why picking the smartest boxer is very difficult to any coach in any sport. I think that because of the way he used to face training, and his behavior inside and outside the ring, the smartest one for me was Miguel Cotto.

STRONGEST
Ruslan Chagaev: In Cuba, I specialized a little bit more in 75 kilograms and 91 kilograms, so I have good experience in that weight class. I could say that these boxers are characterized more by their strength and punching power than by their technical skills and speed. That’s why I think that one of the strongest boxers I have seen, mentally and physically, is Ruslan Chagaev.

BEST PUNCHER
Felix Savon: I had the opportunity to work with Felix Savon for many years, along with one of the best coaches Olympic Boxing has seen, the professor, Alcides Sagarra. Savon has been one of the best punchers ever I have worked with. His power and potency especially with his right hand was incredible.

BEST BOXING SKILLS
Hector Vinent: Working with Hector Vinent was an honor for me. In his prime, he was considered one of the most complete and integral Cuban boxers of all time, along with Teofilo Stevenson, Angel Espinoza and Adolfo Horta among others. Hector Vinent was youth world champion in Lima, Peru in 1990, two-time Olympic champion (Barcelona 1992 – Atlanta 1996), two-time world amateur champion (Tampere 1993 – Berlin 1995), Cuban champion several times and Central American and Caribbean Games champion (Ponce 1993). He had an incredible boxing quality because he mastered the three distances with excellent technique, speed, and great power. He was a boxer that knew how to win and enjoyed each fight. I would have liked to have seen Hector Vinent in a professional boxing ring.

BEST OVERALL
Vinent: No doubt. Because to me he was the most complete boxer in every aspect.