Thursday, January 14, 2010

Diaz’ manager to testify for Pacquiao

THE manager and trainer of former World Boxing Council world lightweight champion David Diaz said he was willing to appear as a witness during a jury trial on the lawsuit filed by Manny Pacquiao against those who accused him of using performance- enhancing drugs.
In an interview with Chicago-based Filipino reporter Joseph Lariosa, Jim Strickland said that if Pacquiao asks him to testify how a previous opponent felt after being beaten by Pacquiao, he would rise to that question.
“I don’t see any reason of accusing Manny of using illegal drugs in our fight,” said Strickland.
Lariosa believes that Strickland’s backing of the Filipino pound-for-pound champion carries some weight, not only because he is the manager and trainer of the former world lightweight champion, but also because he is a retired licensed pharmacist.
In a recorded phone interview with Lariosa, Strickland said: “Manny (Pacquiao) is right in not submitting to a blood test that will determine if he has performance-enhancing drugs in his system because at this point, I don’t know of any quantitative measure that has been held up to scrutiny and the exam and how much is a fighter enhanced when drug (steroid) is taken.”
Strickland said Pacquiao beat Diaz fair and square and they never attributed his victory to the use of a performance-enhancing drug.
He said Pacquiao was right in rejecting the Olympic standard of blood testing because such requirement was not mandated by the Nevada Boxing Commission, which has jurisdiction over the scrapped Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight.
He said that should the Nevada Boxing Commission change its rules by requiring blood test, then by all means, Pacquiao or any boxer should abide by the rules.
Otherwise, the manager/trainer said Pacquiao should not be singled out for blood testing unless the boxing commission says so. Ronnie Nathanielsz
Source: manilastandardtoday.com

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