Take a look at Juan Diaz. The product of Houston, Texas does not posses your typical boxing physique.
Mean, lean, and cut, the men who succeed in the sport are in tip-top physical shape and their bodies are a reflection of the dedication and work they must put in to climb to the top.
Diaz’s body is an abbberatiopn. Short, stocky, and with a rather common physique, Diaz does not look the part of a boxer. If you stuck the man in the ring and did not tell the average on looker who he was or about his pedigree, the common consensus would be, ?This guy ain’t much of a fighter and he needs to loss a few pounds.?
Juan can be described as short, stalky, and even a bit flabby around the waist. Whatever descriptor you use, you cannot make the assumption that Diaz does body is the result of a poor training routine; Never judge this book by its cover had never been more appropriate.
Within the ropes, where truth rules supreme and laziness and lack of focus is expose, Diaz’s body is not an issue. Master of a style punctuated by speed, aggression, and tenacity, Juan has steam rolled himself to the top of the lightweight division undefeated.
Saturday night in Chicago, Diaz dominated Julio Diaz. Wherever Julio went, Juan was sure to follow with fists flying. Bunches of punches fly when Juan fighs, not with the sort of power that makes his opponents crumble into a human pile on the canvas. Instead Juan fires over and over and over with wolverine like tenacity. Even when his Julio was able to rally for ten or fifteen seconds, Juan was right back in his face throwing jabs, straights rights, and hooks with both hands.
He is not going to knock his opponents out with a single punch, but he will break their will. Earlier in the year Juan drove into submission and last night, Julio Diaz called it a night one second into the 9th round.
Joel Casamayor is the so-called champion of the lightweight division, having won The Ring crown from Diego Corrales. Since capturing the crown well a year ago, Casamayor has not fought. I don’t care about Casamayor’s championship, Juan Diaz is the class of the division. At the age of 24, he has ascended to the top of the lightweight class.
Owner of the WBO, IBF, and WBA belts, Diaz is short of the WBC crown held by David Diaz to unify the division, sans Casamayor and his non-commissioned championship. Will Diaz look to capture every crown to put his iron hand on the weight class?
Not likely.
Instead, after he victory, Diaz made it very clearly that he would like to fight super featherweight Manny Pacquiao, inviting the Filipino to fight a younger Mexican; a reference to the fact that Pacquiao has feasted on Mexican icons beyond their prime in Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales.
Diaz’s gauntlet is an indication of a recent positive trend in boxing. Instead of trying to unify belts or focusing on an alphabet mandatory, Juan wants a big fight, a potentially entertaining fight that will please the fans and represent the sport well. 2007 has produced great match-ups between the very best in the sport and Diaz wants to keep the trend alive in 2008 with a clash against Pacman.
Would would be the end result of Pacquiao vs. Diaz?
Hard to say.
Manny is a bit more athletically gifted with speed and cat-like agility, but Diaz is very mobile and has excellent hand speed. The power edge would be tough to gauge. Pacquiao has excellent power but would it be farther diluted with a move up to lightweight from super featherweight? Diaz debuted at welterweight and has settled nicely into lightweight, could Manny hurt a larger man and more importantly with Diaz, keep him at bay?
Sounds like the sort of mystery which can only be sorted out in a boxing contest tailor made for excitement.
