By Jim Dower: As most people expected, Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2, 36 KOs) did what he had to do on Saturday night, beating WC lightweight champion David Diaz (34-2-1, 17 KOs) by a one-sided 9th round KO at the Mandalay Bay Casino & Resort, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight had little in the way of suspense throughout, with Pacquiao 29, beating Diaz like a drum in each round. The end finally came in the 9th round when Pacquiao drilled a badly battered Diaz with a short left hand that dropped Diaz on his back flat on the canvas. Te referee Vic Draculich didn’t even bother counting because it was clear that Diaz wasn’t going to be able to get up from the knockdown. The fight was officially stopped at 2:24 of the 9h round. Moments before, Pacquiao had staggered a bloody Diaz with a right-left combination to the head. Four punches later, Pacquiao finally succeeded in knocking a lumped and cut up Diaz down.
Pacquiao controlled the bout in round one, using his superior speed, power and boxing technique to box circles around the limited Diaz. In fact, Diaz looked positively horrid compared to the speedy Pacquiao, rarely landing more than one shot at a time against the Filipino star at any one time in the round. Using his right hook often, Pacquiao was easily able to control Diaz, 32, with that punch alone, though unfortunately for Diaz, he had a lot more punches in his arsenal to go along with the right hook.
By Nate Anderson: As this Saturday’s bout between Manny Pacquiao (46-3-2, 35 KOs) and David Diaz (34-1-1, 17 KOs) draws closer, I find myself wondering what’s the point in Pacquiao even wasting his time by moving up and fighting Diaz for his WBC lightweight title. There seems to be no logic to it, since Diaz is largely unknown to most boxing fans, only recently picking up some small notoriety with his narrow 12-round unanimous decision over a badly over-the-hill Erik Morales, who was fighting out of his weight class and had lost four out of his last five fights going into his bout with the bigger Diaz, in August 2007. 
By Manuel Perez: With only a week to go before super featherweight Manny Pacquiao (46-3-2, 35 KOs) faces off with WBC lightweight champion David Diaz (34-1-1, 17 KOs) for his lightweight crown at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada, it’s difficult for me to get too excited about this fight for a couple of reason. The most important reason is simple, Pacquiao is going into this fight having recently defeated Juan Manuel Marquez by a 12-round split decision in March, a fight that Pacquiao appeared to lose in every which way you can lose the fight except for the final scoring. 
By Eric Thomas: WBC lightweight champion David Diaz (34-1-1, 17 KOs) defeated Ramon Montano (15-5-2, 1 KOs) in a 12-round majority decision non-title bout on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The final judges’ scores were 95-95, 99-91 and 97-93. I personally had Diaz winning every round of the fight and couldn’t see any rounds that were even slightly close. Montano, 25, only had one knockout on his record going into this fight, and it showed badly, for he didn’t have enough power on his punches to win any of the rounds, even the first and second, rounds in which he was matching Diaz punch for punch. 
By Chris Williams: Erik Morales (48-5, 34 KOs) will be challenging WBC light champion David Diaz (32-1-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night at the Allstate Arena, in Chicago. Morales, 30, going into the bout, has lost three consecutive fights, two of which have been brutal knockout losses to Manny Pacquiao. In fact, Morales hasn’t looked good since winning a 12-round decision over Manny Pacquiao in March 2005. It’s unclear what happened since that time, perhaps it’s because of him putting on a great deal of weight after his winning effort against Paquiao.