Miguel Diaz .........

Veteran corner man Miguel Diaz has seen just about all that the sport of boxing has to offer. After growing up in Argentina and later relocating to America, Diaz would venture from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and find himself working with Top Rank, now the premier promotional entity in the sport. Diaz has worked the corner of such fighters as Floyd Mayweather, Kelly Pavlik, Jose Luis Castillo, Erik Morales, and countless others and there seems to be little in the sweet science that would ever throw him for a loop.
On a daily basis Diaz can be found inside of Barry’s Boxing on the East side of Las Vegas as he helps prepare interim champion Marcos Maidana for his December 11th clash with WBA king Amir Khan at the Mandalay Bay. On his side Diaz has a man with much brute strength and power yet he fully recognizes the challenge that lies ahead

“We know it’s going to be a tough fight,” Diaz claimed. “These are two fighters fighting in the prime of their career. It’s not one guy who is old, they both are at the top of their careers and they both know what they are going for. They know that this is a fight that isn’t going to make it or break it, but make it.”
Khan is a superstar in his native United Kingdom and has rebounded impressively from his September 2008 knockout loss to Breidis Prescott. Contrastingly, Maidana has received far less fanfare during his six-year career yet Diaz believes this could be the fight to catapult the 27-year old to star status.
“Of course Amir Khan, he comes from England and he’s been an Olympic kid,” Diaz noted. “He’s already in the million dollar payday range, but beating Maidana makes him double that.’ And Maidana, coming from a country like Argentina that doesn’t bring too much to the table, not too many fans in the United States, but he knows that winning this fight will make him in line for a million dollar payday. Unification with Devon Alexander or Timothy Bradley, whoever wins that fight. That makes the fight so important, especially for Maidana.”
Diaz claims to have known Maidana as far back as his amateur days in Argentina and recalls reading about the fighter in an issue of Ringside Magazine. Diaz felt that the bruising fighter was one of the best amateurs in the country and later fate would see their paths crossing.
“I know him through his former manager,” Diaz said. “He talked to me and I started training him at the Top Rank gym, at that time the gym was open, and we began training for [Victor] Ortiz. I liked what I saw. Right away I knew that he was a big puncher and he punched with both hands as hard as any middleweight who could punch. We got the fight and as you know he got dropped three times and he dropped Ortiz two times and made him quit.”

Diaz is of course referring to last summer’s clash which saw Maidana upend Ortiz’ applecart by weathering an early storm and turning the tables on the talented southpaw. Seeing things unfold from the corner, Diaz was reminded of one of the finer champions of the last decade.
“It’s one thing when people say heart,” Diaz reflected. “I don’t think it comes from the heart. I think it comes from the mind. I think it’s desire; like Johnny Tapia. He had something very, very important. A lot of people don’t know I trained Johnny Tapia for the first championship fights. The mindset where you just refuse to lose.”
After the Ortiz bout Diaz would help guide Maidana to victories of William Gonzalez in Santa Fe, Argentina and later over Dominican Victor Cayo at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. Diaz revealed that Maidana’s recent struggle in winning a hard fought decision over former champion DeMarcus ‘Chop Chop’ Corley had just as much to due with personal issues outside of the ring that prevented proper training as opposed to the challenge inside of the ring. In breaking down Khan’s assets, Diaz speaks with obvious respect while hoping that the matchup will somehow boil down to a good old fashioned fight.

“I assess him as one of the best 140 pounders in the world right now,” Diaz said of Khan. “A lot of speed, height, good jab, good combination puncher and hopefully he makes through what he said about people underestimating his chin and how he is going to show everybody that he is going to come to fight Maidana. I hope for that and it would be a great fight, another war like what happened with Ortiz. The best puncher and the best chin would win.”
What is also interesting about the Khan-Maidana matchup is that the Lancashire fighter is now trained by widely respected Freddie Roach, who also oversees the duties of pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao. Diaz is very close with Roach and actually began working Pacquiao’s corner as a cut man after Joe Chavez left in late 2008. Asked if it would be hard for him to be competing against his friend, Diaz shrugs off such notions and points out the harsh realities of the sport.
“No, this is just business. This has nothing to do with my friendship with him. Or the relationship I have had with him for thirty years. He is going to prepare a great strategy, I’m going to prepare a great strategy. We hope our fighters follow the strategy and we are going to be across the ring for twelve rounds if the fight goes the distance and after that we are going to hug each other and the winner will be the winner and the loser will be the loser.”

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it is mate, i quite like it and it dont really get used much

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if i dont tell u will rob palmer accuse me of being a ducker:blurp

 

na mate, i get e-mails from some geezer i used to follow on twitter

i am not on twitter anymore:blurp