In a match that defines the term ?styles make fights?, WBA-WBO champion Juan ?Baby Bull? Diaz (32-0, 16KOs) and IBF champion Julio ?The Kid? Diaz (34-3, 25) meet this Saturday in a lightweight unification bout at the Sears Center in Chicago. The fight will be telecast on HBO?s Boxing After Dark at 11:00pm EST. This fight will reveal how 24-year-old Juan Diaz?s high-volume boxing style matches up to a counter puncher with championship experience. For Julio Diaz, 23, the bout represents another chance for him to establish that he can beat higher-echelon competition.
Juan Diaz sees the motivation on both sides to win this fight as the key to making it a hardcore fight fan?s dream match-up, ?I think this will turn out to be the fight of the year and maybe the fight of the century because both Julio Diaz and I want to win so bad. They will have to take me out of the ring on a stretcher for me to lose this fight.?
Julio Diaz sees a strong performance in this fight as one that will put him on the map in the lightweight division, ?I?ve won some big fights. I am a two-time world champion and the current IBF champion but I haven?t gotten the attention that Juan has. I want what he has and I?m coming to get it. I want to be a unified world champion.?
The intrigue of this bout extends beyond the differences in fighting styles between the two combatants. Although Julio Diaz has been in with higher-caliber opposition and has more championship fight experience, he has also registered losses against both top-tier and second-tier opposition (Jose Luis Castillo, Juan Valenzuela, Angel Manfredy). More recently, however ?The Kid? scored a career-best KO victory over former 130-and 135-pound champion Jesus Chavez. ?The Baby Bull,? meanwhile has also just come off a career-defining win of his own, stopping Acelino Freitas in eight rounds, although questions can be raised about how much Freitas had left in the tank after a devastating KO loss to the late Diego Corrales and a lackluster split decision win over Zahir Raheem.
In the end, however, the key selling point of this bout is that both fighters employ completely different fighting styles to win. However, they both have flaws on which the other can capitalize. Juan seeks to overwhelm opponents with high-volume punching and constant pressure, although when he fights on the inside, he often leaves himself open to counter shots. It could be a perfect foil for, Julio, who?ll seek to use his superior size and reach to measure Juan with long counter shots. In an interesting twist, Julio?s two KO losses came from pressure fighters (Castillo, Valenzuela), albeit with more punching power than Saturday?s opponent. Therefore, although Juan has the conditioning to take this fight into deep waters and come away with a hard-fought decision, Julio Diaz has both the height and reach advantage to possibly keep his man at distance with the jab and land power shots at range.
With both young titleholders seeming to complement one another so well, fight fans can expect an action-packed match with from this classic scenario. Two fighters that are similar in name only, fighting for the right to call themselves the best lightweight in the world (though stripped WBC holder Joel Casamayor will have something to say about that.)
