Pound-for-pound fails to impress

Steve Marcus

Manny Pacquiao warms up before training gym Wednesday. Pacquiao, the super featherweight champion, moves up a class to challenge WBC lightweight champion David Diaz for his title Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Friday, June 27, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Not only does Freddie Roach expect Manny Pacquiao to finish off David Diaz with a knockout Saturday night, but in Roach’s mind, an emphatic stoppage is almost mandatory.

Only a knockout, Roach said, would secure Pacquiao’s position atop boxing’s hypothetical ranking of the sport’s best fighters, pound-for-pound.

The catch: Pound-for-pound ratings mean virtually nothing to Pacquiao. They mean little to Roach, Pacquiao’s longtime trainer. And promoter Bob Arum dismisses them as “absolutely ludicrous,” a waste of time and energy.

“Manny doesn’t care at all,” Roach said. “He knows it doesn’t change anything. What the public thinks is what he’s interested in. Manny wants to be the people’s fighter.”

Although Pacquiao ostensibly moved up a notch on the consensus pound-for-pound list with the recent retirement of Floyd Mayweather Jr., the erstwhile No. 1 boxer in the sport, the honor barely registered with him.

Pacquiao (46-3-2, 35 knockouts), the super featherweight champion who is stepping up in weight class to challenge Diaz for his lightweight title, said he has no interest in comparing his abilities to those of any other boxer.

“I just want to try my best to put on a good fight for my people, show them what I can do,” Pacquiao said.

If anything, Pacquiao is more concerned with keeping his reputation as the most crowd-pleasing fighter in boxing, Roach said.

“Pound-for-pound is a nice honor, I guess, but does it really count or matter?” Roach said. “I don’t know. I’m not a huge fan of it.”

Attempting to compare and contrast boxers who have completely different styles and come from separate weight divisions renders any set of pound-for-pound ratings dubious at best, Roach said.

“You’ve got a lot of good fighters out there, like (Joe) Calzaghe,” Roach said. “Maybe he would be No. 2 behind Manny. He’s undefeated, yes. But is he pleasing to the crowd? No. Pacquiao is the most exciting fighter in the world, so I think he deserves recognition for that.

“But a lot of people also like (Miguel) Cotto. Different people appreciate different styles. Not everyone likes the same thing in boxing. So it’s a nice honor, but I’m not sure it really matters.”

Even before Mayweather, the world welterweight champ, announced his retirement at age 31, Arum consistently took issue with rankings that made Mayweather the best overall fighter in the sport.

“I always became incensed when they used to say Mayweather was the best pound-for-pound fighter,” Arum said. “What’s a pound-for-pound fighter? Do you mean the most entertaining fighter? The most power? Who knows? I think pound-for-pound is ludicrous.

“People who are obsessed with that stuff must have nothing better to do. How do you compare a Kelly Pavlik or a Miguel Cotto with a Manny Pacquiao? They’re different fighters entirely. What does it mean?”

Certainly a knockout of Diaz would crystallize Pacquiao’s image as the most electrifying of boxing’s elite fighters.

Diaz (34-1-1, 17 KOs), a southpaw like Pacquiao, has a less celebrated name than his Filipino opponent but is known as a durable fighter who can absorb a lot of shots without breaking down.

He outpointed Mexican great Erik Morales last year, after Pacquiao stopped Morales twice.

Diaz’s willingness to move forward and attack aggressively could create fireworks in the ring Saturday, although his style plays right into Pacquiao’s fearsome hands, Roach said.

“Manny’s speed is going to make the difference,” Roach said. “Diaz is slow of hand and slow of foot and that’s where we excel over him. We have to use that to our advantage. We have to box this guy, use side-to-side movement and land the combinations.

“If you stand in front of him, he’s going to hit you back. So as long as we go in and out, and side to side, he’s not going to be able to find us. This guy is made for us.”