Pacquiao stops Diaz- wins fourth weight world title.

Photo: German Villasenor.

By Francisco and German Villasenor

(June 29, 2008) In what was perhaps his finest, and easiest fight to date, the now four division and new WBC super featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao (47-3-2, 36KOs) defeated a very game, but much slower David Diaz with a devastating KO in the ninth round on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on HBO PPV.

Top Rank presented what turned out to be an exciting fight card, with the head lining Pacquiao, who moved up to the Lightweight division, worked angles, land quick, jarring shots, landing at near will, cutting an incoming and brave Diaz on the bridge of his nose by the second round.

Things went from bad to worse as the rounds went on, as Pacquiao who did not sport nearly a scrape by the end of the night, would bruise up, leave Diaz with a nasty, bloody gash over the top of his right eye in the mid-round, leading to a final blow, a short inside left hand, set up by a fly-away right, which crashed unto Diaz's jaw, sending the Chicago based fighter down face first, with the referee waving the bout off immediately.

The loss saw Diaz's record drop 34-2-1 with 17KOs.

With the win, Pacquiao becomes the first Asian fighter to win four world titles in different weight classes- WBC Flyweight, IBF Super Bantamweight, WBC Super Featherweight and WBC Lightweight world titles, as well as the Ring Magazine champion.

Soto ''losses'' via DQ- rematch ordered against Lorenzo.

In other results, Super featherweight Humberto ''zorrita'' Soto (44-4-2, 28KOs) seemed well on his way to a sure fire stoppage, having controlled and battered, cut up Dominican Republic's Francisco Lorenzo through four rounds,
Bleeding profusely from a broken nose, having been down on a crushing uppercut, Lorenzo was hit while on his way down on top of the head, doing an Oscar best performance, laying down on the canvas, complaining of everything but the legal blows, Joe Cortez had no idea what was going on, after a lenghty conference with the commission, the decision came back as a DQ win for Lorenzo, who promptly popped back unto his feet, looking like he had never been hurt went on to wave to the crowd as he had just been granted a WBC Super Featherweight eliminator decision victory.

At the post fight conference, the WBC proclaimed that they would not recognize the decision and ordered an immediate rematch between the two.
With the ''win'' Lorenzo moved to 33-4, 14 Kos.

Fields gets blasted in fifty seven seconds.

Former world title challenger, Monte Barrett proved that 6'8 heavyweight Tye Fields 41-2, 37 KOs) had no business with any real heavyweight.

After taking a few hard shots form the charging Fields, Barrett landed a clean right hand upstairs, sending Fields down, stumbling down once more as the referee counted on, the giant was in no shape to continue, with the referee calling the bout in the round.

LUEVANO AND SANTIAGO DRAW IN TWELVE.

In a battle of Southpaw fighters, reigning WBO Featherweight champion, La Puente California's Steven Luevano (35-1-1, 15KOs) climbed off the canvas, once, dropping his opponent, Puerto Rico's Mario Santiago (19-1-1, 14KOs) in a fierce battle with both fighters taking turns rocking and bloodying each other through twelve heated rounds of action.

A rematch will be highly welcomed after the judges came back with a split decision (117-111, 115-113, 114-114) draw, leaving Luevano holding on to his belt.