By Joe Harrison
On Saturday, former WBC lightweight champ David Diaz (35-2-1, 17 KOs) earned a 10-round majority decision over Jesus Chavez (44-6, 30 KOs) at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. It was Diaz’s first bout since his defeat to Manny Pacquiao in June of last year. Throughout the contest, Diaz was relentless with his attack, but Chavez showed that he was prepared for a wild battle. The event entitled “WARRIORS COLLIDE/WINDY CITY FIGHT NIGHT 6″ was presented by Dominic Pesoli’s 8 Count Productions.
The opening round was slow as Diaz followed Chavez around the ring. Diaz was the busier fighter, but Chavez avoided danger with his slick side-to-side movement. During the next couple of rounds, they traded punches frequently, and it was Diaz who got the better of the exchanges. Diaz continued to pursue his opponent, using his aggression to maintain control.
Entering the fourth round, Chavez was delivering an effective attack to the body of Diaz; however, Diaz was more than willing to slug it out in order to sustain the momentum. It was the punches from Diaz that were landing with crisp power and forcing Chavez to back off.
By the fifth round, Chavez was landing his punches more accurately from the outside. Then a cut appeared near the right eye of Diaz. Through the middle rounds, Diaz was being out-boxed by the former two-time world champion.
In the eighth round, they exchanged punches often. Diaz got busy again as he pushed Chavez back and constantly forced the action. Once again, Diaz appeared to be in control.
Through the last couple rounds, they traded punches violently. Both boxers had their moments, but it was Diaz who finished the exchanges by landing hard left and right hooks.
In the end, the scores read 95-95, 96-94, and 97-93, favoring Diaz by majority decision.
In the co-main event, super featherweight Juan Carlos Martinez (17-11-1, 7 KOs) upset Jose Andreas Hernandez (22-5, 14 KOs) by winning a clear unanimous decision. There was plenty of back-and-forth action, but Martinez was landing with his right hand repeatedly.
Hernandez showed a lot of heart as he never stopped moving forward; yet, he never stopped taking hard blows and never developed a consistent attack. The final scorecards read 97-93 and 98-92 twice, all for Martinez.
Also on the undercard, super lightweight prospect Ivan Popoca (12-0-1, 8 KOs) stopped Mike Gonzalez (10-7-1, 9 KOs) in the 6th round. It was all Popoca as he landed clean punches while rocking Gonzalez several times. Gonzalez was never out of the fight as his punches landed on occasion, but he found much difficulty in avoiding Popoca’s attacks.
Midway through the sixth round, Popoca tried to finish Gonzalez while he forced him against the ropes. A towel went flying out from the corner of Martinez, but referee Geno Rodriguez was unaware since the towel landed behind him, and the punishment continued. Only a moment later, as Gonzalez staggered across the ring, Rodriguez finally waived off the contest at the 1:34 mark.