BABY BULL GORES PEREZ IN SIX CANDLES By George J. Elsasser

The name is Juan Diaz ... and the "baby bull" sobriquet fits to the letter ... in style something of a pocket version of past middleweight champ Jake "Bronx Bull" LaMotta ~ and last noche's victim may as well been facing the original.

The 20-year old Houston favorite had too many guns for Joel Perez, a 32 year old veteran of 42 bouts ... Took Juan one round to size up the lighter punching Perez ... a big left-hook in stanza two drops Perez ... and it was downhill from that point on.

By round four the Perez right eye began to swell ... along with the puffy look there was a cut - and by round five it was clear to all but a showboating ref named Tim Adams a stoppage would have been the right call.

And then number six ... Diaz doing the pitching ... Perez the catching ... enter the battered Joel corner with a justified no-mas ... enters books as TKO @ 1:27 mark.

Diaz now goes to 23-0 with 11 KO’s ... and guess here is we'll see plenty more of this winging lightweight that applies the pressure from start to finis.

Semper fi,

GEL

11-24-2003