Pacquiao, Diaz face media Tuesday

CHICAGO, Illinois – Manny Pacquiao and David Diaz will host a joint press conference Tuesday noon at Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, California, to drum up publicity for their upcoming World Lightweight Championship on June 28 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, it was announced Friday (Saturday in Manila). Bernie Bahrmasel, one of the press handlers of the event, said the title fight is being promoted by Top Rank in association with MP Promotions. The 12-round 135-pound championship fight dubbed "Lethal Combination" will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View, beginning at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard /6 p.m. Pacific Time Saturday (10 a.m. Sunday, Manila Time). The press conference comes on the heels of the weeklong promotional tour of reigning WBC champion Chicagoan David Diaz in San Antonio (Texas), Phoenix (Arizona) and San Diego (California) leading up to his fight with boxing superstar Pacquiao. Pacquiao (46-3-2, 34 KOs) will try to wrest the WBC belt from the Chicago-native and Chicago-based David Diaz to add more feathers in his cap. Pacquiao would be climbing the 135-pound division in the battle of the southpaws that will guarantee the General Santos slugger a minimum of $3-million purse while Diaz will be earning his largest personal record paycheck at $800,000. The Mexican American Diaz will attempt to halt Pacquiao’s streak of beating top-ranked Mexican boxers. Among the Mexican boxers that Pacquiao had blown away were Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar Larios, Emanuel Lucero, Hector Velazquez and Jorge Solis. Diaz is the youngest son of nine children whose parents immigrated to Chicago from the state of Guerrero, Mexico. He takes pride of his Mexican heritage and is happy to be enjoying the best of both worlds. - GMANews.TV