One needs to look no further than Saturday’s Mosley-Vargas undercard to see one of the game’s fastest rising young stars. WBA lightweight champion Juan Diaz (29-0, 14 KO) is set to make the fourth defense of his title since capturing it almost exactly two years ago, at the age of 20. The “Baby Bull” takes on Filipino Randy Suico (24-2, 21 KO).
Diaz looks to build upon the momentum created from his impressive win over Jose Cotto last April on the undercard of Mayweather-Judah. Diaz and Cotto was an all action affair, with a combined 2,321 punches thrown in the fight. It was Diaz landing at a 32% connect rate, taking the fight to his opponent and wearing him down as he normally does. Cotto threw an astounding 1,403 punches, but was unable to land even one out of five as an average, as his opponent kept him off balance and retreating for many of the rounds.
It was the Cotto fight, a bout that was considered an even match and the young champion’s toughest test going in, that has brought Diaz praise from fans and pundits alike. After winning the title from the battle-tested Lakva Sim, Diaz was considered to be just another alphabet title-holder and not on the same level as the division’s elite fighters such as Diego Corrales, Jesus Chavez, Joel Casamayor, or Julio Diaz. But after outclassing the then-undefeated Cotto, Diaz began to be mentioned in the same sentences as the elite lightweights.
After his second title defense, against Billy Irwin in January of 2005, Diaz had typically fought every three or four months throughout his career. His next fight was to be against Ebo Elder as a co-feature on the inaugural ESPN pay-per-view, but a cut suffered by Diaz on the last day of sparring forced a cancellation.
Next up was a rematch with Sim, who was the WBA mandatory opponent at the time. The fight was on and off three times over the next year, and eventually cancelled. Other opponents and big fights were talked about, but never came to fruition.
The frustration was evident among the Diaz camp when manager Willie Savannah publicly lashed out at Main Events, accusing his fighter’s promotional firm of not doing enough to put Diaz into a major fight. He was forced to take a non-televised fight against journeyman Arthur Cruz to stay busy in the meantime. Finally, early this year, the fight was made with Cotto, and the tension has seemingly eased between the two sides.
Little known Suico has an impressive knockout ratio, however, most of his 21 knockouts have come against even lesser known 130-pound opponents, in the Philippines and Japan. The two notable names on his resume are Javier Jauregui and Mzonke Fana, losing to both narrowly, via majority and split decisions, respectively.
This will be Suico’s first world title fight, only his third in the United States, and is definitely the biggest of his career.
