By Cliff Rold
A bout that fight fans outside of Romania might never have seen before the advent of the internet is now a bout one could assume most fans are still waiting to hear the result of.
After nine action packed rounds of back and forth action, technical glitches left computer screens blank and observers wondering about what would eventually be a unanimous decision victory in favor of Romania’s 29-year old Adrian Diaconu (25-0, 15 KO) for the WBC interim title designation in the Light Heavyweight division. Through those first nine, 27-year old Chris Henry (21-1, 17 KO) of Houston, Texas gave just a little less good than he got but both men performed in exciting enough fashion to earn their way into the discussion with the rest of an increasingly crowded Light Heavyweight field.
The bout was webcast live on www.donkingtv.com from the 6,000 seat Sala Polivalenta in Bucharest, Romania.
Both men appeared edgy in the opening frame. Henry circled to his left, using his height advantage to good affect behind a long, snapping jab. Diaconu landed his best punch of the round a minute in with a right hand the pushed Henry towards the ropes. A minute later, a left hook in the corner from Diaconu fueled a hard counter right from Henry. A left hook after the bell by the hometown favorite brought a quick stare down and gentlemanly glove tap to end the action.
Henry continued to control the geography of the bout in the second with lateral movement and a jab that brought some bruising to the flesh beneath Diaconu’s right eye. It was Diaconu though who landed the rounds flushest shots, a left hook early that brought a roar from the crowd and a right hand in the last minute that brought another.
Diaconu slipped the jab better in the third and effectively took Henry’s right hand away from him with deft head movement and glove blocking. Switching from orthodox to southpaw, and back again, Diaconu lured Henry into a corner and countered a missed Henry right off the ropes with a furious flush right and glancing left hook that sent Henry stutter stepping backwards to mid-ring.
Round four featured stinging leather from both combatants but appeared again to favor Diaconu. Henry’s lead right hand would be met repeatedly by thudding rights and stinging left hooks. The bout, being fought under the WBC’s open scoring rules, was announced unanimously in favor of Diaconu, by scores of 40-36 and 39-37 twice, through the first third of scheduled action.
Henry reacted to the scores with increased aggression in the fifth, his best offensive display of the night up to then. While still eating hard right hands, Henry let loose with a nasty three-punch combination at mid-ring with a minute to go in the round that featured a jarring right uppercut and left hook. Henry would pursue Diaconu into the corner, landing similarly hard right hands.
Vicious exchanges from both men marked the sixth. Unwilling to let Henry steal the momentum, Diaconu let loose a humbling left hook forty seconds into the round. Moments later, the fighters would go to the ropes for the first of several memorable exchanges along the ropes that would bring the crowd to their feet at the closing bell.
Role reversal was the story of the seventh. Diaconu, the more naturally inclined pressure fighter, fought going backwards in search of counter opportunities while Henry pressed the action. At the halfway mark, Henry would land his best combination of the bout, a right uppercut-overhand right combination that stunned his man.
Fighting relaxed, Diaconu continued to play the counter-puncher in the eighth, landing a flush right and a nice one-two off the ropes in the opening minute. Another firm right-left hook combo would come at around 1:20 of the round. Henry would land a right hand at approximately the :40 second mark but taste two vicious body shots, first a left and then a right seconds apart, for his trouble. In the closing seconds, a blind right and left would dramatically hurt Henry who stumbled backwards towards his corner. Diaconu gave chase with another left hook to the body, then to the head, and two blatantly illegal right hands after the bell that flew past the referee as he attempted to separate the fighters. No penalty was assessed.
Open scoring announcements after eight again favored Diaconu at 78-74 twice and a closer 77-75.
Undeterred by the conclusion of the previous round, Henry continued to stalk in the ninth. His best results would occur in the closing seconds. Two right hands along the ropes, and the solid legs he displayed as he took a left in return, planted him firmly back in the fray.
How well did he stay in the fray? One guess is as good as another, as in the tenth round, the fight effectively concluded “Who shot JR?” style for web viewers. Boxrec.com would eventually post that Diaconu had won the affair but official final scores were not available as of this print.
Editor's Note: The final scores were 115-113, 115-113 and 116-113.
Diaconu and Henry came in below the division’s 175 lb. limit at Friday’s weigh-in, with Diaconu at 174 ¼ and Henry at 173 ¾ lbs. Diaconu now moves forwards as the mandatory challenger to WBC titlist Chad Dawson (26-0, 17 KO).
In the webcast opener, promising 26-year old Jr. Welterweight Ionut “JO JO” Dan (21-0, 12 KO) picked up the best win of his career with a third round knockout of former WBA Lightweight titlist Raul Balbi (55-9-1, 38 KO) of Argentina. It was a homecoming of sorts for Dan who was born in Romania and now fights out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada along with fellow Romanians Lucien Bute (IBF 168 lb. titlist) and Diaconu. It was conversely a bad trip down memory lane for Balbi whose two most memorable fights were savage losses to now-retired Romanian Lightweight Leonard Dorin in 2002.
Both Dan and Babli weighed in slightly under the division’s 140 lb. limit at 139 ¼ and 139 ½ lbs. respectively.
Dan and Balbi began the bout feeling each other out, testing the distance of the fight with their jabs. Dan turned up the heat in the second. Tall for the division at 5’11, the southpaw used his right jab to open up opportunities for sharp straight lefts, driving Balbi into the ropes on more than one occasion. Balbi’s shots repeatedly fell short until the final ten seconds when a single right uppercut broke through to Dan’s chin.
That shot did nothing to deter the younger man. In a third round that followed the form of the second, Dan continued to find a home for his left hand until buying the real estate outright. Biting on a righthand/shoulder feint, Balbi dropped his own right hand and ate a single, devastating left hook that sent him flat towards the canvas. As the referee tolled his count, Balbi was able to roll over onto all fours at five and lift himself to a knee around six but that’s as far as he got. The bout was at the 1:45 mark.
Also on the webcast, Jr. Lightweight prospect and 2004 Romanian Olympian Viroel Simion (8-0, 3 KO) captured a unanimous decision over veteran journeyman Rudy Encarnacion (18-12-2, 8 KO). Simion used steady pressure and a rippling left hook to dominate the action from bell to bell. The official judge’s scores came in at 99-90 and 98-91 twice.
The card was promoted by Romanian-based Gankor Productions.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com
