Juan Diaz makes his return this Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, versus Paulie Malignaggi. Since we last saw him, when he lost a thrilling back-and-forth battle versus Juan Manuel Marquez, ‘the Baby Bull’ has graduated from the University of Houston-Downtown. You’ve heard the term ‘student-athlete’, Diaz was a student-boxer.
But no more. And because of it, all of his time is now fully focused on boxing.
“It’s a great advantage because I feel great after each workout because I don’t have to rush, take a shower and go to class any more, now,” he told Maxboxing, last week. “I can focus everyday on boxing and just concentrate on coming home, resting up and being ready for tomorrow. But one thing I do miss, that communication with people, because it’s kinda funny, it’s a strange feeling to me to come home Monday through Sunday and it’s like,’ Alright, I’ll just sit here, watch TV, take a nap for a few hours.’ I wake up and it’s like,’ It’s barely six, seven o’clock.'”
There was a bit of a Groundhog Day existence that Diaz had settled into. In fact, throughout his professional career, he knew no other lifestyle. His manager Willie Savannah pointed out,” This is the first fight that he’s had that he wasn’t going to school. Whether it was high school or college. This is the first fight that we didn’t have to arrange his boxing schedule around his college schedule.”
But Diaz has found that free time, can be idle time. Without a regimented itinerary taking up his time in-between his morning workouts and his late afternoon sessions at the Savannah Boxing Club, he actually finds himself bored.
“Y’know what? I truly am,” he admitted. “I’m here sitting around the house, I get up and walk outside, I’ll read a book and not even that’s interesting. I’ll be like,’ Man, I need to do something.”
And that could come in the form of law school in the near future.
“They have the LSAT test in October, I’m not sure if I’m going to make the deadline because I wanted to take a review course but I’m definitely going to take the review course for the LSAT test and if time permits, then I’m going to take the test and apply to three law schools here in Houston because I definitely want to leave that door open,” he says. “But from what I hear, law school is so much more work that teachers have told me to maybe hold on until I finish my boxing career.
“But going through this fight with nothing to do, I think I’m going to pursue something else. I’m going to grab at least one or two classes and maybe get involved in politics because this is not going to cut it.”
Savannah himself isn’t sure that having Diaz be just a full-time boxer is necessarily beneficial to his boxer.
“Well, it’s hard to say because Juan always thought that an idle mind is the devils workshop. So he always thought that once he got into college, that going to college, staying focused on it and boxing, helped him stay focused all the way round. Right now, I see him just as motivated as I’ve ever seen him.”
While he received his diploma in June, he was taken to graduate school by the pugilistic professor that is Marquez, who was able to overcome the early energy and passion of Diaz with his guile and savvy. Also, while Marquez reacted to his adversity with a professional calm, Diaz says he panicked. And it cost him dearly.
“I know I’m prone to cuts and in the fight against Nate Campbell, I got a little defensive-minded and wasn’t throwing punches towards the end because I couldn’t see. Well, in this fight, it was the opposite,” explained Diaz, who has a record of 34-2.” I saw blood and said,’ Aw, man, I’m gonna throw more punches. I’m not going to let him think he has me. In this fight, that was my mistake. I started throwing more punches than I should have. I should’ve maybe stepped back a little bit, let my corner work on the cut, be smart in there. Instead, I went in there and just threw punches and got caught with punches myself.”
Diaz was incredibly active the first half of that fight back in February. But while he did at times seem to overwhelm and swarm Marquez, the old master is a keen counter-puncher, who began to time Diaz’s frequent assaults. Come at him the same speed over and over, and he’ll begin to dissect you slowly.
“I made it easy for him,” he admits, while pointing out, “but one of the main things, I guess was my fault- I underestimated him and his power. From the first round, I went in there and said,’ Aw, man, this guy can’t punch. This guy doesn’t have anything.’ For a few rounds, all throughout the fight, I know he hurt me in the eighth round, my legs buckled a little bit, I still underestimated his power. I was walking in and not doing any lateral movement, not a lot of head movement and I can only blame myself for that. Because even though he wasn’t hurting me early in the fight or I wasn’t feeling his punching power, I was letting him hit me and those punches accumulated.”
Diaz is just 25 years of age, but Savannah in the past has talked just as much about his future outside the ring( where he foresees Diaz one day being the Mayor of Houston or being a partner in a big law firm) as he has about the long-term future inside of it. The native Houstonian has already had an accomplished career and is now armed with a college degree. Plus, his frenetic style is one that isn’t associated with long careers that head into the mid-30’s. It’s not clear just how long Diaz has left in the business of boxing.
“Assuming everything goes uphill after the 22ND, I don’t know, it’s hard to say, maybe two, three years, something like that” says Savannah, who is ultra-protective of Diaz. “I definitely don’t want him in there when he’s 35 years old, can’t walk and all that kinda stuff.”
When you ask Diaz that question, he answers: “Right now, I’m very young, 25, but I’ve been in this sport since I was eight years old. I’ve accomplished a lot at a young age and I’m giving myself a good three to four years of hard, hard work. I’m going to dedicate myself 110-percent to boxing because I want to be able to speak and communicate with my family, very well. I don’t want to be one of those guys that stutters, can’t remember what I did yesterday or can’t remember half of the stuff I did, ten years from now.
“So I want to make sure and give myself that opportunity and to my family. So I’m giving myself three to four years to really give myself, to really focus in on boxing.”
But after two tough losses in his last three outings, does he have the same zeal for boxing he once did?
“We all, when we’re younger, tend to kick our heels up a little bit more compared to when we’re older. Understand, Juan is 25, but it seems like he’s 55 because he’s been on the upscale boxing ladder for so long. But no, I’ve never seen him so focused for a fight as this fight here. Because he knows this fight means a lot to him. But he’s got that zest, right now,” said Savannah.
“I definitely do,” states Diaz, without hesitation. “I’ve become a four-time world champion, it’s about becoming champion against. But it’s also about making a statement, leaving a mark on boxing. As I did in my last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez. I want to be able to look back and say,’ Wow, I was in one of those classic, epic battles, but I came out victorious. Not the loser, but the winner.”
PINOY POWER
I don’t think it was a scintillating performance by any means from Nonito Donaire, who boxed his way to a wide decision over Rafael Concepcion to win the WBA interim super flyweight title. But I think it has to be mitigated with the fact that Concepcion came in at 119.5-pounds, which really made him a jr. featherweight. And he looked to be a good 10-pounds heavier than Donaire when they actually faced each other at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
From what I’m told, Concepcion wasn’t exactly crestfallen over his inability( or was it reluctance?) to make the 115-pound limit and that he didn’t exactly do much to lose any more of the excess poundage after the weigh-in. Something about this just smelled fishy.
Think about it, while he was fined 20-percent of his purse (with half going to the Nevada commission and the rest to Donaire), that cost would be off-set by the economic windfall that would come in the future by beating Donaire, regardless of the weight he came in at. And there was great pressure on ‘the Filipino Flash’ and his crew to go through with this event, after all, this was a promotion based around him and it was a show dubbed ‘Pinoy Power’. Tough for it to go on without the main event fight.
There’s a reason why we have weight classes in boxing. While Donaire had to stretch himself and his 5’7 frame to get the last, most grueling pounds off his body, Concepcion didn’t have to make that sacrifice.
Here’s what I propose- and this would have to be done by the managers- to keep this sort of skulduggery from occurring, managers should start putting in more clauses that penalize fighters a certain amount of money for every pound they come in over the weight limit. It’s been done before in other high profile bouts, such as Manny Pacquiao’s fights versus Erik Morales at jr. lightweight.
If fighters and their camps want to pull these types of ploys, then it should come at much steeper price than just 20-percent of their purse.
– As for the bout between WBO featherweight champion Steven Luevano and Bernabe Concepcion, perhaps you can make an argument that referee Jay Nady should’ve been closer to the fighters at the end of the seventh round or that Concepcion really didn’t hear the bell to end that frame, but the bottom line is very simple, it was clearly a late shot and one that buzzed Luevano quite badly. Nady had no other choice but to DQ (which means disqualify, not Dairy Queen) Concepcion.
In football, it doesn’t matter if a player doesn’t hear the whistle, if he blasts another player late (on purpose or not), it’s a penalty.
FRIDAY NIGHT FRIGHTS
The consensus among people in the business is that this past weekends edition of ‘Friday Night Fights’ on ESPN2 was one of the worst boxing broadcasts of all-time. Just how bad was this show? Well, none of the four televised bouts which pitted Golden Boy prospects/suspects versus a slew of tomato- or shall we say, Tecate cans?- saw the third round. Meaning that the ring card girls didn’t get much work and if you were the Desert Diamond Casino in Tuscon, Arizona that hosted this event, there was no need to bring out the ‘Round 3’ placard from your broom closet.
But seriously, this was an embarrassment and it shows the inherent danger of exclusive deals between networks and promoters. This was every bit as bad as any show that was shoved down the throat of Versus not-too-long ago by Top Rank with Tye Fields as the headliner. Did the network give up it’s quality control in the name of a title sponsor? Everyone involved from ESPN, to Golden Boy, to Tecate, should be at least a little bit chagrined by what was put on this past Friday night.
Because this had me yearning to see some Big East football on ‘the Deuce’ or some extra innings of college baseball. The broadcast was actually ended early( I was told because an ambulance and paramedic were no longer on the premises after leaving with Vivian Harris) but I have to say it’s perhaps the most humane pulling of the plug not executed by Dr. Kevorkian.
If there was one bright spot in this muck, it was the duo of Teddy Atlas and Joe Tessitore( who actually used the adjective ‘atrocious’ to describe what they were witnessing ringside) who called it the way it was from the very beginning. I’m not exactly sure what the pair in-studio in Bristol were looking at, but they were certainly in the minority.
Personally, I think it was unsettling- to say the least- to have people booing any fighter like Harris, while out on a stretcher. But in their defense, I think they were really booing the totality of events they had seen in the past few hours. (Well, OK, some were booing Harris, after all, they ARE boxing fans.)
But y’know what? If I had put down my hard-earned money for that show, I would’ve been booing, also.
HARD KNOCKS
One of my favorite shows every year is ‘Hard Knocks’ on HBO. This year they follow the Cincinnati Bengals during training camp. If you’re a football fan or a sports fan in general who loves behind-the-scenes footage, this is a must-see. It’s just 24/7- but doesn’t seem nearly as scripted or as contrived.
Some quick random thoughts on the first episode:
– Do the Bengals really charge their player to rent TV’s for their rooms during camp? Geez, they really are the cheapest organization in pro spots. What next, charging them for use of their playbooks?
– Chad ‘Ocho Cinco’ looks pretty damn good on the heavy-bag. Seriously, he does look a lot like Paul Williams.
– What happened to,’ Hey, coach needs to see you, bring your playbook’? The cutting of JD Runnels by just going to his room late at night and letting him go with really no explanation or a meeting with head coach Marvin Lewis and just saying it was about ‘talent’ is bush league.
Doesn’t he deserve just a modicum of respect? I hope Runnels got his meeting with Lewis that next morning, at least.
FINAL FLURRIES
Don’t know about you, but I think Vivian Harris’ reaction to the clash of heads with Noe Bolanos could speak to a much bigger problem for Harris than just that incident. He hasn’t had his legs under him for a few years….I think this Gabriel Campillo is the real thing. He defeated Beibut Shumenov to retain the WBA light heavyweight title this past weekend….Now, that Roy Jones has dusted off Omar Sheika and now Jeff Lacy and will face Danny Green in the fall, I think after that he’ll get around to finally facing Nigel Benn, Steve Collins, and Chris Eubank in 2010….Cameron Dunkin says that despite hands that were banged up on Saturday night, that Donaire will be good to go for December and the next edition of ‘Pinoy Power’. Also, Luevano checked out fine and will be ready for his rematch with Concepcion on that card….By the way, Concepcion just threw another punch after the bell…..Antwon Echols is fighting still if you can believe. He faces Angel ‘Toro’ Hernandez on August 21st. Who knows, maybe the winner gets BJ Flores…..Aaron Corp beter not miss much time, Matt Barkely is the real thing. Corp risks being the Wally Pipp of USC football….. Twitter.com/stevemaxboxing…..
