Sharkies Machine
By Frank Gonzalez Jr.
October 14th, 2007
“Juan Diaz Silences Julio Diaz in Nine”

Julio “Kidd” Diaz’ (34-4, 25 KO’s) bark turned out to be bigger than his bit on Saturday night, where in Chicago, he finally got to fight WBA/WBO Champ Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz (33-0, 17 KO’s). It was a RARE unifying title bout that would see the winner possesses three of the four major recognized title belts. So, congratulations to Juan Diaz of Houston Texas, who after two years of being hounded by Julio Diaz to fight, took him on and fought aggressively for eight straight rounds until Julio’s corner called it a night. It would be Juan Diaz by TKO victory over the man who talked so much but was unable to convincingly win a single round.

Both guys did have moments in the first round and arguments can be made that that round was even. But Juan Diaz pressed the action and kept Julio Diaz going backwards the whole fight. What surprised me was Julio’s strategy, he kept close and gave away his natural advantage of height, where he might’ve worked his jab, frustrated Juan Diaz and who knows? Julio fought Juan’s fight all night and got the worst of it for the duration of the fight. Juan constantly threw combinations and even when he was missing, he was scoring because of his constant punching and commanding the tempo of the fight.

While I congratulate Juan Diaz for his recent success, I have to confess, that I haven’t been a big fan of his for a few of the reasons Julio Diaz constantly pointed out in his quest to taunt Juan into fighting him. Juan Diaz has been too carefully managed, fought too many cream puffs and held his title for too long without defending it against legit competition, etc. But honestly, what American top ranked fighter hasn’t taken this exact path?

Juan Diaz demonstrated that his style of aggressive pressure fighting is effective. His classy attitude is worthy of respect and maybe there’s something about the cautious management that works because—this kid has turned out to be a damn good fighter. Julio Diaz and Acelino Freitas are the best fighters Juan has faced so far and he won both fights convincingly.

During the post fight interview, Juan was asked who he wants to fight next. Names like David Diaz, the WBC Champion and Manny Pacquaio were mentioned. Juan said he would fight any of those guys but when pressed further for a specific answer said he’d like to fight Pacquaio, who just beat an old Mexican warrior and should now face him, a young Mexican warrior. Of course, I’d prefer he fight David Diaz next and attempt to consolidate the titles and become the ONLY unified Champion in all of the divisions in Boxing. But Juan sounded more interested in Pacman.

A fight against David Diaz will unify the titles. A fight against Pacquaio will make him very rich. That makes it hard to criticize choosing to fight the naturally smaller Pacquaio. Can you blame him?

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