Juan Diaz and Ronnie Shields
Media Conference Call Transcript
July 15, 2010
(JULY 15) Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz and
Ronnie Shields Media Conference Call Transcript.
K. Swanson:
Thank you, everybody, for calling in. We have another exciting
conference call today featuring one of our main event fighters, Juan
Diaz, former Three-Time Lightweight World Champion. Also joining him is
Ronnie Shields, who is his trainer, and Richard Schaefer, Chief
Executive Officer of Golden Boy Promotions.
Before I turn it over to Richard, I do want to say I've been in boxing a
long time and I've worked with a lot of fighters and personally, I am so
impressed with Juan Diaz's story. It's an honor, actually, to be
participating and helping to tell it. It's a wonderful opportunity to
hear a story about how a fighter is going to make it whether he's in or
out of the ring.
He, as you all know, is studying to be a lawyer. He has his own
construction company and he wrote a wonderful Op-Ed piece that was
featured in The Houston Chronicle for the July 4 weekend sharing his
thoughts on his dreams coming true as a son of Mexican immigrants. Juan,
I'm very impressed with you and I wish you all of the best. Before we
introduce him, I'm going to turn it over to Richard Schaefer, Chief
Executive Officer of Golden Boy Promotions, to tell us more about the
fight. Richard.
R. Schaefer:
Thank you, Kelly. You stole all of the thunder. I agree. What an amazing
young man. Juan is 26-years young. He has been a Three-Time World
Champion already and has accomplished so much inside the ring, but at
the same time; I agree with you, Kelly; an amazing story and has
accomplished so much outside of the ring.
The first fight between Marquez and Diaz, as we all know, was voted by
pretty much everyone from Ring Magazine to the ESPN to the Boxing
Writers Association as the Fight of the Year. By the way, that fight of
the year will have some replay as well. I want to announce that quickly.
HBO Sports is going to replay on Friday, July 16 at 7:15 p.m., on
Friday, July 23 at midnight, and Saturday, July 24 at 10:45 in the
morning Eastern and Pacific times. It is available as well 24 hours a
day starting Monday, July 19 on HBO On-Demand for those who want to take
a look at that again and I urge you as well to check out HBO.com, which
has an online link to Marquez-Diaz I fight as well and an amazing piece
about Marquez's greatest hits and Diaz's greatest hits all in a very
high quality environment, so really great coverage there from HBO. For
those of you who want to see it again, there are different outlets where
you can see that first fight again.
The fight will be July 31 at the Mandalay Bay, promoted by Golden Boy
and Marquez Promotions, sponsored by Cerveza Tecate and AT&T and, as we
all know, live from HBO Pay-Per-View at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific.
Tickets are on sale and for as little as $50, you can witness the
rematch of this great Fight of the Year for $50, $100, $150, $250 and
the top price, $350. Great room rates are available in Las Vegas as
well, so I urge everyone to make it a great weekend in Vegas.
The fight will be shown in 270 select movie theaters nationwide and the
entire card will be shown. We talked last week and we'll have in the
coming weeks more conference calls about the undercard, which is, as we
call it, the best undercard in many years, really an amazing lineup of
fighters, which will lead up to the rematch between Marquez and Diaz.
Before I turn it over to Juan Diaz, it is a pleasure for me to introduce
to you Juan Diaz's long-time trainer, who has worked with many world
champions during his career. I believe he has worked with Juan Diaz for
30 fights so he knows Juan very well. He knows what kinds of adjustments
need to be made to bring home the victory. It's a pleasure for me to
introduce to you one of the best trainers in the business today and that
is, of course, Ronnie Shields.
Ronnie, if you want to give us some thoughts on how training camp went,
please do so.
R. Shields:
Thank you, Richard. It's a pleasure for me to be on this conference call
with Juan. Juan is in great condition. Our training camp has gone really
well. As you all know, Juan got knocked out in the fight with Marquez,
but it was such a great fight and it is very warranted that these two
guys are fighting again. Juan always trains hard, so we had to make some
adjustments and that's exactly what we're doing right now, making plenty
of adjustments.
Juan is really listening to everything we're doing in the gym. His
condition is great and we're looking forward to the fight on July 31. We
know every one of you all are looking forward to it also, because it was
the Fight of the Year and trust me, the second one is probably going to
be the Fight of the Year, so I think everybody should tune in and
basically that's all I have to say right now.
R. Schaefer:
As I said before, Juan Diaz is only 26-years young and has been already
a Three-Time World Lightweight Champion and Lightweight is really the
weight where he is at his best. After going one-on-one with Malignaggi
he decided to go back to Lightweight. He defeated Australian warrior
Michael Katsidis in that weight class as well and when you look at the
last fight, the first fight and I asked actually for a copy of the
scorecards, you see that Duane Ford had Marquez ahead, 77-75. Max DeLuca
had Juan Diaz ahead after the eighth round, 75-77. Lenny Martinez had it
at a draw, 76-76. So going into that ninth round it was a dead even
fight.
Many ring-side observers felt that Juan Diaz was beating Marquez to the
punch and made Marquez look old. Marquez made the necessary adjustments
and then obviously landed the big punch, which marked the end to the
first fight. So here you have a young fighter with Juan Diaz, who has
learned from that fight. I think he was becoming a bit too confident in
the fight and I think he knows what adjustments he needs to make. He
knows as well how important a victory here is and what it could lead to.
I know he is a very smart guy outside the ring. He just graduated from
the University of Houston, Texas in 2009. He's on his way to become a
lawyer, so I know he's a very smart guy outside the ring and I know he's
a very smart guy inside the ring as well and he will make the necessary
adjustments and he is coming July 31 to win, to win big against the
legendary Juan Manuel Marquez.
It is a pleasure, as Kelly Swanson said before, to introduce to you a
man you all know and who really is just an amazing person in and outside
of the ring. That's the Baby Bull, Juan Diaz. Juan.
J. Diaz:
Thank you, Richard, and thank you, Kelly, for those great words. I'm
very excited and very grateful. I thank God for giving me the
opportunity to fight once again against such a great fighter like Juan
Manuel Marquez. I didn't think this fight was going to happen after my
two fights with Malignaggi, but here I am and I'm very grateful that
Golden Boy and HBO have given me this opportunity to come back in such a
great fight like this, especially being the showcase fight of the night
for July 31. I even feel more grateful and I'm excited and I'm happy
because this last year, if we can count from last February to now, has
been a rollercoaster ride for me. It's been up and down types of
situations for me. I lost against Marquez. I won the first fight against
Malignaggi, then lost again on the rematch. So it's been a rollercoaster
ride and I'm very fortunate to be here.
With that said, I'm taking full advantage of this situation and I'm
training my butt off every day, day-in and day-out. I've been in
training camp for eight weeks now. Saturday will be two left before the
big fight, so I'm going to end up with a ten-week training camp. In the
past weeks it was taking its toll, but now that I can see the light at
the end of the tunnel my motivation and enthusiasm has picked up and
even my sparring partners are feeling it.
Q:
Juan, could you just talk a little bit about the types of things that
you need to do differently in the rematch? Because, as Richard was
talking about in his introduction, it was a very close fight until,
obviously, the end when you were stopped. So can you talk about what you
need to do differently or how you think the fight can turn out
differently?
J. Diaz:
Well, I know that the game plan that I had in the first fight was
working. Obviously, it was a really close fight, but I think I had the
edge over Marquez. The only things that I deviated from in the late
rounds were when Ronnie was telling me to apply the same amount of
pressure, but the only difference was that, yes, I was applying the
pressure, but leaving myself wide open and exposed to his upper cuts.
He was hitting me. He was landing with some good upper cuts and I kept
falling in and falling in with the jab and with the upper cuts. I mean
he kept landing those upper cuts and Ronnie kept telling me, "Stay in
your box. Stay in your box," but I was stubborn and just kept pushing
forward and squaring up and falling in, which led to me being stopped.
Q:
Ronnie, can you address that also, about what you're, I guess, preaching
the same thing to him that you were saying to him in the fight that he
didn't follow as you come into this rematch, the same things you've been
preaching to him?
R. Shields:
Yes. Absolutely. I think our game plan is going to be similar to what we
followed last time. We made some minor adjustments. I mean Juan is a
valiant puncher, so we have to play off of that, but I think we have to
do it in a way that benefits Juan. Definitely, I'm not going to say how
we're going to do that, but I think we definitely have to benefit and
use his boxing skills also.
Juan is a really good boxer and that's what got him to being Champion of
the world from the beginning, being able to beat all of the guys he's
beaten before. But with Marquez, this guy is such a smart guy. I mean
he's not going to be a Hall of Fame guy for nothing, because he's been
in there with the best. He's beaten the best, so we have to outsmart him
and I think Juan has the capabilities to do that.
But in the first fight, yes, I told him we needed to keep the pressure
on, but we needed to basically just to jab and he started falling in
with it and he got caught and we paid for it. So now that's really one
thing that we're really working on a lot is keeping him to where he
doesn't fall in the punches so he can't get hit with those upper cuts.
We know Marquez basically is probably going to fight the same kind of
fight that he fought and let Juan dictate everything, but we have a few
surprises for him also.
Q:
Both of you guys actually, do you think that maybe Juan, as great of a
fighter as he is, he's into his later 30s now and Juan is still a very
young man; I think 26; that maybe Marquez is a little bit slowed down
since that fight because the fight was so tough to begin with and on top
of that, his next fight after that was against Floyd Mayweather, where
he lost essentially every single round and got knocked down. I know he
was fighting at a heavier weight, but all of those things combined, plus
the age, that maybe he won't be as on the way he was in that first
fight?
R. Shields:
Well, I don't know. It's kind of hard to tell, but yes, I mean I think
Juan took a lot out of him. Although we lost the fight I think Juan
really helped himself by the way he pushed the first fight. Also, he
looked so slow against Floyd Mayweather, but who doesn't? Floyd is such
a great fighter he just dominated the fight, but I mean time will tell.
We can't chance anything. We have to fight our fight and not fall into
the hands of Marquez.
Q:
The fight was the Fight of the Year, so it was one of the memorable
fights of recent years. The fans seemed to love it. The Toyota Center
was packed and going crazy. Everybody seemed to really have a good time
and you got the Fight of the Year Award, but on the other hand, you lost
the fight. So is there a little bit of a mixed emotion in the sense
that, hey, I'm glad that we put on the Fight of the Year. I got my
trophy from the Boxing Writers and everybody is going to remember this
fight forever; but on the other hand, I got an L on my record and a
knockout?
J. Diaz:
Yes. It definitely makes emotions on one part. I'm very happy that I was
able to be in one of those fights. That had always been my dream, to be
in one of those all-out wars, but obviously, in my dream the outcome
wasn't the outcome that happened in 2009. I was the winner.
But all in all, I think that it was a win-win situation. It exposed me
to something I had never experienced before. I had never been stopped in
my career. I had never really been hurt like I was hurt in that fight,
so now I've experienced that. I had never been in such a big fight with
so many people and just the atmosphere was just amazing, which now I
have that experience and now I can go into the fight relaxed, as I have
done in my previous fights.
Q:
Juan, you mentioned that if we go back to last February, meaning
February 2009, it's been a rollercoaster ride, but really, if you went
back to a little bit before that you were fighting Nate Campbell March
of '08. For that fight you had started, I believe, 33-0 and now you're
35-3, so you lost 3 out of your past 5. I'm not saying that to rub it in
or anything like that, but what I'm wondering is Richard also mentioned
in his introduction that you know how important this fight is.
How important is this fight to your career as far as winning? When you
think about it, is it a do or die fight if you want people to still
consider you a world-class guy and a title contender and that whole
thing, a lead fighter?
J. Diaz:
Yes. Definitely. I definitely do. I see this as a win-win situation for
me, because this fight is going to prove to me whether I have it or I
don't. This fight right here is what's going to take me to the top and
make me the super star that I've been wanting to be in the Lightweight
division, but if it doesn't happen then that means it's not meant to be
and I'll move on to bigger and better things, which could be start from
the bottom and pick up the pieces to rebuild myself up or just
completely do a 360 - I mean a 180 - and just go in the opposite
direction.
This fight here, a lot of people have been mentioning to me that it's a
do or die fight. Well, I don't think it is a do or die fight. I think
it's a win-win situation because either I become a world champion once
again and become a super star or it opens up doors for me to do other
things and focus on other aspects of my life.
Q:
So when you say open the door to other things, are you talking about
maybe retirement and going into law practice, that kind of thing?
J. Diaz:
That's possible. It's very possible. I'm not going to close any doors
because I'm still a young fighter. I'm 26-years-old. If my plan is to
continue fighting after this fight then that's exactly what I'm going to
do. If it's not the best decision when I sit down and talk to my family
and my managers and my promoter, if that's not the best thing to do then
I'm not going to be stubborn. I'm smart enough, like Richard said, I
have a college degree; I'm smart enough to know that I'm not going to be
chasing a dream that's not going to come true again. I know when it's
time to go and I know when it's time to stop.
Q:
Juan, you fought Malignaggi at 140 and now you're back down to 135. How
significant was the difference in weight for you and how much more
comfortable are you at 135?
J. Diaz:
Oh, I'm 10 times more comfortable at 135 because at 140, the last fight
we fought I came in weighing 139 and then the night of the fight I
stepped on the scales and that was with my shoes and my pants on and I
was weighing 143. So that goes to show you that I don't gain too much
weight and now, even right now, like today, I left the gym weighing 138
pounds because it's so hot and humid down here in Houston. I'm sweating
a lot and it's just natural.
I'm eating healthy. I'm eating the right foods. I'm eating four times a
day and that's without even dieting, without even trying to, so by the
time fight night comes around this time around, the day of the win I'm
going to weigh 135 and fight night I'm going to be weighing about 142,
143, which will be 7 to 8 pounds that I'm going to gain.
Now, fighting at 140, that's only 2 or 3 pounds that I gain, so do you
see the difference here? By fighting Lightweight I gain seven to eight
pounds and you can tell that I'm a pretty big guy. I don't mean height
wise, but at least my body, I'm a pretty solid 135. At 140 I'm not that
solid.
Q:
Ronnie, let me ask you the same question. When you were looking at Juan
in the Malignaggi fight did you see a slower Juan or did you see the
weight affecting him as well? Because you did take the rematch and he
did look a little bit slower, so was it a conscious effort to say, "You
know what? It's a lot better for us to go back down to 135?"
R. Shields:
Yes. Absolutely. I thought I didn't like the fight at 140. I thought
Juan won the first fight. The first fight was the same thing. He was
walking around at the start of training camp at 143 and that's at the
beginning. To try to make 139.25, I think was the weight difference, so
we know we didn't have no problem. I mean he was coming out at the
training sessions, coming out 139, so it didn't benefit us and it don't
benefit us to fight at 140.
It benefits us to fight at 135, but Juan is a bigger guy at 135. He's
stronger at 135 than he is at 140 because the guys are bigger. I know
Malignaggi, he weighed, I think, like 152 pounds after the weigh-ins, so
he gained about 13 pounds. Juan only gained three. That was a big
difference. Malignaggi was used to fighting at that weight, at 140 and
fighting at 150 to 152, but Juan wasn't.
Of course, Paulie is a really good boxer. We can't take away the victory
that Paulie got because he fought well and he really boxed well, but I
think Juan's natural weight is 135 pounds and I think you're going to
see him a lot stronger in this fight than you did in his last two.
Q:
Juan, you mentioned that Marquez is a pretty intelligent fighter. What
is it that he does inside the ring that makes him so different or so
smart?
J. Diaz:
What makes him so different from a lot of guys is that a lot of guys
when they go in there and fight they're thinking about landing punches,
just landing punches, throwing and landing the punches. What Marquez
does very well is that he thinks every second of the fight. You throw a
punch and you might hit them with that one punch, but the next time
around you're not going to hit them with that punch or you're going to
get hit with two or three of his punches. So that's what makes him so
great in the ring is that he's a great counter puncher. You throw two or
three punches and if you don't throw them right he's going to find an
opening and crack you with his punches.
Q:
Did he make any adjustments with his stance or any little movements that
kind of threw you off?
J. Diaz:
No, not necessarily. I think what really helped him out was the fact
that I made so many mistakes in the later rounds. Like I said earlier, I
was falling in. He has great tendency to throw great upper cuts and what
better way to help him out than for me to be leaning over and giving him
those free open shots? So I think it wasn't so much what he did, because
if you go back and see his fights, he always has the same style. He
always fights the same fight. Now, the only difference is that when you
make those mistakes, whenever you make mistakes that's when he
capitalizes on the mistakes you make, the fighter makes, his opponent.
Q:
Did you ever fight a fighter in that same kind of a mentality, somebody
who kind of took advantage of things like that or does anybody else even
compare?
J. Diaz:
Yes. There are a few fighters that I fought coming up as an undefeated
guy. One of those guys that I fought early on was Ubaldo Hernandez,
which was a guy from Mexico City, who didn't have a lot of talent. He
was one of those what you call, so called, journey men that go and fight
one week and then the next week he's fighting another undefeated, up and
coming super star. But those journeymen are the guys that are actually
the toughest ones to beat because they know that they can't get hurt.
They know that they have to do enough to make the fight interesting, but
not get hurt. So those guys are real elusive and very smart when it
comes to being in the ring.
Q:
Juan, going back to some comments that you said earlier, just about how
this fight, if you lose, it could open some doors leading to other
ventures and other aspects of life. Some people have already mentioned
this; that a lot of boxers aren't like that. It's either boxing or
nothing. So what's kind of been different for you and why have you
consciously kind of created another life for yourself? Is that a lesson
that you learned from somebody else or is that something that just came
to you?
J. Diaz:
Well, I think that's a product of being surrounded by so many great
people who taught me that. My parents were one of them. They're the ones
that instilled that in me; that, yes, we want you to be a professional
boxer. If that's what you like then do it, but the number one objective
and why we came to the United States was for you and your brother to
have a great education.
Then you have Mr. Willie Savannah, who is like a second father to me.
He's always preached to me that school, school, school; that boxing is
not always what it's made out to be. You can see a lot of stars, like,
for example, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, who
make it to that great super star status, but realistically, a lot of us
boxers are never going to get there. We're never going to make it to the
point that they've achieved and everything that they've done, so what I
see and one of the things that has opened my mind as well has been
school.
There are so many things that I've learned in my years in college that
can make me be a successful man outside of the ring, so it makes it
interesting. I think that's what helps me to be and what made me be the
champion that I am is the fact that I never relied too much on boxing to
have a better future. I always knew that there are a lot of
possibilities out there in the world to be a successful person.
Q:
My second question was about the venue. A lot of your fights obviously
happen in Houston, Texas, your hometown. What do you think about the
fight being in Vegas? Do you think it's the right venue for this kind of
a magnitude of a fight in your career or would you rather that it did
happen kind of in your own backyard?
J. Diaz:
No. I actually prefer it to be and I love the fact that it's in Vegas.
One, because Vegas is the fight town of the country, everybody knows
that big pay-per-view fights, big fights always happen in Las Vegas. If
it was up to me I would rather not fight again in my hometown because
every time I've fought here in Houston there's always seemed to be
speculation and arguments about the judges, the referee.
I'll start off with Michael Katsidis. Then you have Paulie Malignaggi
and Juan Manuel Marquez himself have problems with fighting here in
Houston because they said that it was my hometown and they were scared
that there was going to be favoritism. I don't blame them. I'm not
accusing them of anything, but if I was in a fighter's hometown then I
would have a little concern about that myself, so that's why even though
it's great it was 15,000-plus, standing room only. Tickets sold.
I love the fact that the fans are so great here in Houston, but at the
same time, I'm so happy that it's in Vegas because I don't have to worry
about any of the distractions or controversies they may have. Come July
31 we're going to have a winner and we're going to have a loser and
that's going to be it.
Q:
My question is for Juan and Ronnie. It seemed to me that the first fight
with Marquez turned after you got cut and that's kind of when he started
to work in the upper cuts. Can you hang your hat on that a little bit or
is the upper cut probably the main punch that got you that you're
worried about going into this fight?
J. Diaz:
Well, I'm not so much worried about the upper cut. I know that that's
one of his punches, one of his favorite punches to throw and one of his
punches that he's beat a lot of guys with, so even though I'm working on
the upper cuts I don't see it as the main concern because I know that he
has a whole arsenal of punches that he can land just as effectively, but
I think that you do bring up a great thing here when you say about the
cut. I think that if you see the fight Marquez, even though we know
Marquez picks up later on, I actually think that he was slowing down.
Once I got cut it's like a lion; when a lion sees blood he just pounces
on the prey. I think that's what energized and helped Marquez out. I
think that if it shouldn't have been for that blood that he saw on me
then I think it would have been a different story.
Q:
Coming into this fight, obviously, you're a volume puncher. That's what
you do. That's your bread and butter is overwhelming your opponent, but
you also use the jab and to me you seemed like you were winning the
fight. So really, this is more for Ronnie I guess; is there really that
much of a change that you need to make? Is it more just about getting a
little luckier in this fight?
R. Shields:
Well, like I said, I think our strategy basically is just more on the
boxing and put the pressure with his jab. He did that. I mean he was
doing that very well, but the thing where he messed up was he started
leaning in with it. When I mean start leaning in, his distance got too
far away and he wasn't stepping in the way he was supposed to. He
started landing a couple of times and then Marquez caught him with the
upper cut.
But as far as our game plan, I mean if you know me, then my guys are
going to jab. I mean they're going to jab their way in and then Juan is
going to do what he do and that's be a volume puncher. So Marquez is
going to have to keep up with the same things that he's been doing. He
knows that. I just feel that Juan's jab is going to play a key role in
this fight.
Q:
Finally, considering what a huge draw Juan is in Texas and Houston in
particular and how big the gate was the last time, I'm just curious; why
have the fight in Vegas? Is it because Marquez won and you wanted a
neutral site?
R. Schaefer:
Well, both fighters sort of like wanted to see if the fight could be
done outside of Houston after the last one was in Houston. Juan has now
fought many of his last few fights in Houston and so we felt it was
time, since the fighters encouraged us to do it somewhere else than
Houston this time around, we looked around and we felt that Las Vegas
was a good choice given the fact, as Juan correctly said, that when it
comes to big pay-per-views Vegas certainly knows how to roll out the red
carpet.
It's a very positive environment for the pay-per-views, for the fans.
There are great room rates out there. It's great to make a weekend out
of it, to be in Las Vegas and so we really felt that Vegas was the right
place given the preference of the fighters as well. But I agree with
you. I mean from a dollar point of view I believe at the Toyota Center
the gate was over $1 million, so a huge crowd there, but we felt as well
that maybe going back there too often is not the right thing to do, so
we feel very confident about Vegas.
Ticket sales are going quite well. We went on sale very early on. We saw
a tremendous uptick in sales once we had announced the undercard as
well. We got as well confirmation that most large, national media
outlets are going to be attending the fight, the card, so I think we are
going to be doing very well in Las Vegas.
Q:
Juan, you just said that you feel really comfortable in the Lightweight
division. Marquez's last fight was in Welterweight. Do you believe that
he will have some trouble to make that weight?
J. Diaz:
Well, I don't think he'll have any problems making the weight because
he's a small guy in frame, like me. I don't see why he went up to
welterweight in the first place, but I think his natural weight is at
the lightweight division. I'm hoping that it does have some effects on
him going back down, but I seriously doubt it. I don't doubt that he's
going to have much problem making the weight.
Q:
Why did you decide to incorporate a dietician in your training? Do you
need to be more careful with the food to make the 135?
J. Diaz:
I incorporated the dietician in my training camp because I want to do
everything and anything possible for this fight to be successful, to
win. I even got a swimming coach. I used to do my strength and
conditioning coaches would be the one watching me swim, but I even got a
swimming coach for this time around, so I'm doing everything and
anything possible because I want to make sure that I'm eating the right
foods to have the energy in the gym to train hard every day and I want
to make sure that I'm doing everything right.
Q:
I enjoyed your Op Ed. That was well written. I wanted to ask you a
question based on that. I live here in Phoenix and I know that you
fought here in 2007 I think it was. Most of the fighters on the card
have fought in Arizona at least once. My question is about the
controversial law, SP1070. If you were asked to fight in Arizona again
would you?
J. Diaz:
That is very tough, very tough, because initially I would say no. It is
because of all of the controversy that is going on, but I don't
specifically or am a little upset about the immigration per se so much
because you have people from all over the world that are immigrants.
They could be Mexicans, Asians, what not, but the only problem that I
see and foresee for the state is not so much the things they're doing or
the laws they're incorporating against the illegal immigrants, but what
they're doing to them as humans.
Each one of us has individual human rights and we're all born with those
individual, human rights. I think that the state is infringing upon
those individual human rights and not just because they're illegal
immigrants I'm upset, but because they're human beings. Some of the
things that are going on down there I don't think are very human of the
state and officials, the way they're conducting things.
Q:
So I guess you'd have to think about that if you were offered to fight
in that state?
J. Diaz:
I would definitely think about it and it would be something that I would
take into consideration and really sit down and think about it and
analyze the whole situation.
Q:
Right now, for instance, in Major League Baseball they have the All-Star
Game going on in Anaheim and there's a lot of discussion about next year
about moving the All-Star Game from Phoenix. It's scheduled for Phoenix.
I guess this would be up to each individual boxer or could boxers get
together and say we're just not going to perform in this state anymore?
J. Diaz:
Well, I think right now it's all about individual boxers because us, as
boxers, we don't have a specific league like a lot of the MBA players,
football players or baseball players where they can go to the league and
say their concerns or protest to them. Us, as individuals, as individual
fighters, we really can't do that. So it would take some type of big,
big organization from promoters or even the sanctioning bodies in the
sport of boxing.
Q:
Juan, there's been a lot of discussion about the fact that you're going
to be studying to become a lawyer. You're a college graduate. You have
this business. You have all of these other opportunities that are out
there. Just from this particular fight is there a down side to that
also? Does any of that dampen the hunger that a fighter needs to win,
especially when you're facing somebody that doesn't have all of those
other opportunities?
J. Diaz:
Well, I think there's actually a positive because it depends on how you
look at it because, yes, you can look at it and many people may look at
it and think that it's a negative because I have so many things going on
outside of boxing that I may not be as hungry to fight. But, if you look
at it on the other side, which is on my side, it's the fact that in
order for me to be successful in all of those aspects of life then I
have to be hungry enough because the doors that have been opened for me
have been because of boxing, because I've been a World Champion, because
I've been pretty well known all around the nation. So all of the doors
and businesses that I have going on, all of the activities that I do
outside of the boxing is because of boxing. I'm being realistic with
myself. I'm being honest with myself. I will be honest with everybody
here and who is going to read this.
For example, I'm hungry for this fight because I want to win it. I know
that by winning this fight I'm going to become a great fighter, a World
Champion once again. It opens the doors a lot easier. For example, I'm
studying for law school right now, but say a hypothetical example, I
score a little bit below average on my test. The school of my choice
says, "You know what? You scored a little bit behind, but you're this
great super star, World Champion who's going to bring a lot of attention
to the school," and bam, I get in.
So that's why I'm hungry, because I want to be successful outside of
boxing and in order to be successful outside of boxing I have to be
successful in the ring. That's why I train so hard, because I don't want
to let that go. I don't want my success to stop just because I'm not a
boxer any more.
Q:
You wrote in the article in the Houston Chronicle, "After my days in the
ring are over I want to be a successful lawyer who champions rights for
the people." Do you see in some ways you're representing the people
whose rights are threatened by SP1070 and also to economic and political
things when you're in the ring?
J. Diaz:
Yes. I definitely do. I definitely do, because when the people see me,
when they see me in the ring they see your regular, average Joe. I'm not
one of those guys that has a six-pack, that has muscles all over my
body, so when these people are going through these tough, economic times
and have their individual rights infringed upon and they see me, a
Mexican American, who came from illegal immigrants and has become a
World Champion and has also achieved his college education, then for a
split second or for that night at least that they see me fighting in
there it's like I'm fighting for them. They see me in there, everything
that I've accomplished and they know that whether it is them or their
children, that if they fight or work hard enough that things are going
to get better and that their lives can change and they can achieve the
American dream.
R. Schaefer:
Juan Diaz talking about the American dream, I think that's a perfect way
to end this conference call. He's going to be, on July 31, in Las Vegas
trying to make history come true as well, which is to win the undisputed
Lightweight Championship from Juan Manuel Marquez. I know that Juan,
because of his personality and what he stands for, what his values are,
he will have a lot of people from around the world, particularly here in
the United States, rooting for you and for him.
Having said that, I want to really thank all of you media members to be
on that conference call, our conference call in a series of these calls
and for making the commitment to come out to Las Vegas July 31 to see
the rematch of the Fight of the Year and really see the night of the
year with the tremendous undercard we have put together.
By the way, tomorrow we will have at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern,
Danny Jacobs and Dmitry Pirog on. As you know, these two will be
fighting for the vacant Middleweight Championship of the World. So that
will be a very interesting call. Then next week we will have, on
Tuesday, Juan Manuel Marquez and his trainer on as well.
So again, thank you, all, for being on the call. I look forward to
talking to you tomorrow. Thank you.
END OF CALL
Marquez vs. Diaz II "Fight of the Year: The Rematch" is promoted by
Golden Boy Promotions in association with Marquez Boxing Promotions and
sponsored by Cerveza Tecate and AT&T. The 12-round rematch of the "2009
Fight of the Year" is scheduled for Saturday, July 31 at the Mandalay
Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev. and will be for Marquez's Ring
Magazine, WBA and WBO Lightweight World titles. The championship fight
will be produced and distributed live on HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at
9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
Tickets for Marquez vs. Diaz II are priced at $350, $250, $150, $100 and
$50 and are on sale now. Tickets are available for purchase at all Las
Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith's Food and Drug Centers and
Ritmo Latino).
