Sharkie’s Machine
By Frank Gonzalez Jr.
October 14th, 2007
“Baby Bull Silences Julio Diaz in Nine”
Julio “Kidd” Diaz’ (34-4, 25 KO’s) bark turned out to be
bigger than his bite on Saturday night, where in Chicago, he
finally got to fight WBA/WBO Champ Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz
(33-0, 17 KO’s). It was a RARE unifying title bout that would
see the winner possessing three of the four major
recognized title belts. So, congratulations to Juan Diaz of
Houston Texas, who after two years of being hounded by Julio
Diaz to fight, took him on and fought aggressively for eight
straight rounds until Julio’s corner called it a night. It
would be Juan Diaz by TKO victory over the man who talked so
much but was unable to convincingly win a single round.
Both guys did have moments in the first round and arguments
can be made that round was even. But Juan Diaz pressed the
action and kept Julio Diaz going backwards the whole fight.
What surprised me was Julio’s strategy, he kept close and gave
away his natural advantage of height, where he might’ve worked
his jab, frustrated Juan Diaz and who knows? Julio fought
Juan’s fight all night and got the worst of it for the
duration of the fight. Juan constantly threw combinations and
even when he was missing, he was scoring because of his
constant punching and commanding the tempo of the fight.
While I congratulate Juan Diaz for his recent success, I have
to confess, that I haven’t been a big fan of his for a few of
the reasons Julio Diaz constantly pointed out in his quest to
taunt Juan into fighting him. Juan Diaz has been too carefully
managed, fought too many cream puffs and held his title for
too long without defending it against legit competition, etc.
But honestly, what American top ranked fighter hasn’t taken
this exact path?
Juan Diaz demonstrated that his style of aggressive pressure
fighting is effective. His classy attitude is worthy of
respect and maybe there’s something about the cautious
management that works because—this kid has turned out to be a
damn good fighter. Julio Diaz and Acelino Freitas are the best
fighters Juan has faced so far and he won both fights
convincingly.
During the post fight interview, Juan was asked who he wants
to fight next. Names like David Diaz, the WBC Champion and
Manny Pacquiao were mentioned. Juan said he would fight any of
those guys but when pressed further for a specific answer said
he’d like to fight Pacquiao, who just beat an old Mexican
warrior and should now face him, a young Mexican warrior. Of
course, I’d prefer he fight David Diaz next and attempt to
consolidate the titles and become the ONLY unified Champion in
all of the divisions in Boxing. But Juan sounded more
interested in Pacman.
A fight against David Diaz will unify the titles. A fight
against Pacquiao will make him very rich. That makes it hard
to criticize choosing to fight the naturally smaller Pacquiao.
Can you blame him?
* * *
Comments can be emailed
to Sharkie
