Put Miguel Diaz in the Boxing Hall of Fame!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, legendary trainer Miguel Diaz deserves to be in the Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York. 

He has a resume that boasts a legendary career that has seen him bring 13 fighters to world titles and corner dozens of others as a cut-man or second. For those keeping score, Diaz has been in the corner as the chief trainer, second or cut man for over 200 world title fights. 

Diaz first landed in Los Angeles from his native Argentina in 1965 before setting up shop permanently in Las Vegas in 1972. 

By 1974, Diaz was working as a trainer and cutman and was training his then-growing stable of fighters at Johnny Tacos, then the city’s only boxing gym. 

Diaz, who turns 86 this year, has worked independently and enjoyed a decades-long career with the legendary, Las Vegas-based Top Rank Boxing. 

In a recent chat in Las Vegas, pressed to pick the best fighter he had ever worked with, Diaz said he, “can’t pick just one best fighter because I personally trained so many great fighters and worked with dozens of other great fighters as well”. 

Some of the fighters that Diaz took to a world title include, among many others, Stevie Johnson, New Mexico’s infamous Johnny Tapia, the late, great Diego Corrales, and Roger Mayweather, the first of the famous fighting Mayweather’s to win a world title.  

The roster of boxers he has worked with in other capacities is a staggering ledger. It includes a list of fighters that can be best summed up as the elite of the modern era. These include Manny Pacquiao, James Toney, Miguel Cotto, Erik Morales, and Floyd Mayweather Jr., among many others. 

The numbers don’t lie and the resume speaks for itself. Words like “legend” and “famous” get thrown around a lot. But, for one of boxing’s truly best cornermen, Miguel Diaz, they are accurate adjectives. They describe a man who has earned a spot in boxing’s most famous Hall of Fame from an incredible career in the sport. 

A long-married father and grandfather, humility won’t allow Diaz to say it, but I will - put Miguel Diaz in the Boxing Hall of Fame, he has more than earned it. 

Ask anybody with a long tenure in the sport if Miguel Diaz deserves to be in the Boxing Hall of Fame and the answer will be a resounding “Yes”.

Everybody in boxing knows he’s had a Hall of Fame career - let’s make it official.