CHICAGO–It was the end of the eighth round. IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz?s fight plan, which was the total opposite of the one he followed while in training, had proven disastrous.
Instead of boxing and keeping his range, and smartly using his height and reach advantage, against unbeaten Jaun ?Baby Bull? Diaz, Julio had elected from the opening round to stand and trade with the younger man.
?I decided to fight like that in the first round,? Julio said. ?I felt so much bigger and stronger than him. I went into the opposite fight that I trained for and that my corner wanted me to fight.?
The difference in their hand speed was amazing to watch and I asked Hall of Famer Roy Jones afterwards if he knew how rapidly Juan could get off six, seven or eight punches in succession. Don King had Jones and his Jan. 19 New York PPV opponent, Fleix ?Tito? Trinidad, in the house for promotional purposes.
?No, I didn?t,? Jones said as he left the arena after Julio quit in his corner. ?But I certainly do now.?
When RJJ pays attention to your hand speed, that?s a huge compliment. And Juan earned lots of compliments for his stellar performance.
The question remained, why did a heretofore ?gamer? like Julio pack it in? At first, in the ring, Julio made some excuse about hurting a shoulder in the second round but, when I saw him in the locker room, Julio and his ex-boxer brothers, Joel and Antonio, said they didn?t want to see Juan smashing their youngest brother like a pi?ata any longer.
?I?m not going to let Julio be a punching bag,? Joel said.
Antonio did not disagree and so Julio silently consented to the sudden stoppage. At the finish, Boxingconfidential had Juan in front by two points as did one judge. The other judges had it 78-74 and 79-73 in favor of the ?Baby Bull? from Houston.
Juan ran his spotless record 33-0 with 17 KOs while “The Kidd” from Coachella Valley dipped to 34-4.
?I thought I was more powerful than him from the start,? Julio said. ?He wanted to trade punches with me and I fell into that trap. He?s a hyped-up kid. But I?ve really got no excuses.?
By the way, Julio wasn?t criticizing the winner by calling him ?hyped up.? What the loser meant was that Juan was, like he is in every fight, makes the Energizer Bunny look he is in slow motion.
And that?s no bull, baby!
