Great opening fight between Luevano and Santiago. I'm guessing we'll see a rematch on a future PPV undercard.
Joe Cortez is a good ref, but the Soto DQ was a joke. He didn't even land a real punch when the opponent was on his knees. Luckily for Soto, that was just a stay-busy fight, so it's not like the DQ loss hurts him in any way. Anyone who watched the fight knows what happened.
As for the main event, it went as expected for the most part. Just entirely too much speed from Pacquiao. All you had to do was look at their common opponent going in to know Diaz was going to be in trouble. Pacquiao destroyed an old, once-great Morales in 3 rounds; Diaz barely beat an even older and more faded Morales by a narrow one-point decision. Diaz is a big sturdy lightweight, which is why he was able to last for 9 rounds last night, otherwise he would have been gone much earlier. And as already mentioned, Diaz did supply an awesome postfight interview. I was hoping that Lampley would join the fun and start working f-bombs into his questions, but no such luck. Anyway, Pacquiao has clearly established himself as the #1 PFP fighter in the world, at least while Mayweather is on vacation.
As for where Pacquiao goes from here....
Casamayor, Marquez, Campbell, Guzman, Juan Diaz, and Katsidis are all fighting in early September. So they're all unavailable until 2009. At 140, Hatton is fighting Malignaggi in the fall, so the same goes for them in terms of availability. So it looks like Pacquiao is relegated to a stay-busy fight later this year. Two guys of quality who should be available are Jose Armando Santa Cruz and Humberto Soto. Santa Cruz is the guy who got robbed against Casamayor on the Cotto-Mosley undercard. Soto would move up from 130 for the chance at a big payday against Manny. He's also a Top Rank fighter (like Pac, like David Diaz), so the negotiation part would be pretty easy, since Arum would be making a deal with himself for all intents and purposes. Two other names I'll throw out there as options are Edwin Valero and Jorge Barrios.
Let's assume for the sake of argument that Marquez beats Casamayor, Hatton beats Malignaggi, and Pac beats whomever his next opponent is. Pac will then have to decide between a third fight with Marquez at 135 or a fight with Hatton at 140. I can't blame Manny at all if he fought Hatton. That's a much bigger payday, and while Hatton is overrated, he is still the legit and unquestioned champ at 140, so it'd be a legit title fight. But without question, the third fight with Marquez would be the bigger challenge (I think you could easily rank Marquez as the #2 fighter in the world, ahead of Calzaghe). If Malignaggi can upset Hatton in the fall (entirely possible), then that makes the decision a lot easier, since in that case the one big payday is the third fight with Marquez.
If Guzman were to beat Campbell, he'd own 2 lightweight belts, and I think Guzman has the type of skills and style that could give Pacquiao a lot of trouble. But I'm not sure Arum would ever make that fight. Guzman is a dangerous opponent who doesn't bring a big payday. High risk/low reward for Pacquiao in that matchup.