By Thomas Gerbasi
20 years from now, we probably won’t even be thinking about Juan Diaz the boxer. We’ll be referring to him as Senator Diaz, Governor Diaz, or maybe even President Diaz. That’s the kind of upside the former lightweight champion has in the ‘real’ world.
But for now, he remains the “Baby Bull”, a 26-year old at the crossroads of a decade-long career in the fight game as he approaches his Saturday rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas. Only in boxing can those who haven’t yet reached the age of 30 be deemed in a ‘must-win’ situation, but when you’ve had 38 pro fights, and lost three of your last five (with one of those wins being questionable), you are forced to wear the sport’s scarlet letter.
Yet Diaz, as always, sees the cup as half-full, an admirable trait in a cynical world and even more cynical sport.
“I see this as a win-win situation for me, because this fight is going to prove to me whether I have it or I don't,” he said during a recent media teleconference. “This fight right here is what's going to take me to the top and make me the superstar that I've been wanting to be in the lightweight division, but if it doesn't happen then that means it's not meant to be and I'll move on to bigger and better things, which could be start from the bottom and pick up the pieces to rebuild myself up or completely do a 180 and just go in the opposite direction.”
If the Houston native does fall short of victory on Saturday, it would probably serve the sport right for him to walk away, because as he alluded to, the title “superstar” is one that has not been placed on his head yet, when it should have been as soon as he placed the lightweight crown on his head for the first time in 2004.
A fighter with an all-action, fan-friendly style, Diaz may not have had the power to match his aggressiveness, but it was never for lack of trying. That should have been enough to get him some well-deserved attention. Add in his affable and humble personality, endless charity work, and his ability to juggle a full course load at the University of Houston, and you’ve got the perfect ambassador for a sport that always could use any positive press it can get.
But Diaz’ ascension to the level of a Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather or Oscar De La Hoya didn’t happen. Sure, he’s big in his home state of Texas and in the boxing community, with the occasional blip on the mainstream radar, but beyond that, Diaz is what he is – a solid fighter and a former world champion who can fill seats, but not someone the average Joe on the street knows. And hey, that’s the story for 99 percent of the fighters who fit that same description, but back in the 40s and 50s, and even in the sport’s last Golden Age in the 80s, people would have known who Juan Diaz was, mainly because he’s an honest fighter with a great story who puts on his hard hat and tries to rip your head off when the bell rings.
He puts it even more eloquently when he says, “when the people see me in the ring they see your regular, average Joe. I'm not one of those guys that has a six-pack, that has muscles all over my body…They see me, a Mexican-American, who came from illegal immigrants and has become a World Champion and has also achieved his college education, and then for a split second or for that night at least that they see me fighting in there, it's like I'm fighting for them. They see me in there, everything that I've accomplished and they know that whether it is them or their children, that if they fight or work hard enough that things are going to get better and that their lives can change and they can achieve the American dream.”
Today, that’s just not enough.
A visit to Diaz’ @1Babybull Twitter account will look like a typical 20-something’s page, complete with updates on video game conquests, watching Entourage, and hanging out with family. There are no wild afterparties, shoulder-straining pats on the back, namedropping, or LeBron-esque announcements. But if you’re looking for Diaz to be bitter, keep looking, because he’s been prepared for this day for a long time by a man who has been in his corner for nearly two decades, his first trainer and current manager Willie Savannah.
“He’s always preached to me school, school, school,” said Diaz. “And that boxing is not always what it's made out to be. You can see a lot of stars, like, for example, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, who make it to that great superstar status, but realistically, a lot of us boxers are never going to get there. We're never going to make it to the point that they've achieved and everything that they've done, so what I see and one of the things that has opened my mind as well has been school.”
In 2009, Diaz graduated from the University of Houston and is currently studying for his LSAT (Law School Admission Test) with the hopes of entering law school next year. He has deftly avoided the hanger-ons and entourages that come with a successful pro sports career as well, another testament to his adherence to the words of Savannah.
“I told him a long time ago that people are going to be whispering in your ear,” Savannah told me back in 2003. “They’ll tell you everything that they think you want to hear, and finally one day, they’ll click upon something that makes your ears stand up. I kept him away from most of those kinds of people in the first place, and not just them, but all kinds of negative people. If people start talking to you about negative stuff, just step away. Don’t even finish the conversation. I’ve had him since he was eight years old. I’m retired from the Union Pacific railroad; I’ve got my own living made. I want to do this just as a family type of thing.”
It’s worked, and Diaz is a shining example of what discipline can do for a young man, and taking the path he has also opened up a world outside the ring, one that will serve him well once the final bell tolls on his active career.
“There are so many things that I've learned in my years in college that can make me be a successful man outside of the ring, so it makes it interesting,” said Diaz. “I think that's what helps me to be, and what made me be the champion that I am is the fact that I never relied too much on boxing to have a better future. I always knew that there are a lot of possibilities out there in the world to be a successful person.”
One of those possibilities still exists in the prize ring this weekend. Superstar-status or not, Diaz is still one of the best 135-pounders in the world, and after back-to-back bouts fought above the lightweight limit, there is enough of a question about whether Diaz’ less than stellar performances in consecutive fights against Paulie Malignaggi had to do with him being above his optimum weight. Diaz and longtime trainer Ronnie Shields believe this to be the case.
“I'm 10 times more comfortable at 135 because at 140, the last fight we fought I came in weighing 139 and then the night of the fight I stepped on the scales with my shoes and my pants on and I was weighing 143,” said Diaz. “Fighting at 140, that's only two or three pounds that I gain, so do you see the difference here? By fighting lightweight I gain seven to eight pounds and you can tell that I'm a pretty big guy. I don't mean height wise, but at least my body, I'm a pretty solid 135. At 140 I'm not that solid.”
“We can't take away the victory that Paulie got (in the rematch) because he fought well and he really boxed well, but I think Juan's natural weight is 135 pounds and I think you're going to see him a lot stronger in this fight than you did in his last two,” said Shields.
Add in the fact that Diaz was winning the 2009 Fight of the Year against Marquez handily the first time around before the veteran from Mexico roared back and stopped the “Baby Bull” in the ninth round, and that Marquez - at 36 and coming off a one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather last September - is more likely to grow old overnight than Diaz is, and there is enough reason for Diaz and his supporters to be confident of victory. And should he emerge victorious, he will regain the WBA and WBO lightweight belts, resurrect a sagging career, and get in line for some big money fights in 2011. Will that elusive ‘superstar’ tag then be his? Probably not, but that’s okay. Like I wrote earlier, 20 years from now, there will be more pressing matters on the desk of Mr. Juan Diaz, and you get the impression that he knows it too.
“I'm still a young fighter,” he said. “I'm 26-years-old. If my plan is to continue fighting after this fight then that's exactly what I'm going to do. If it's not the best decision when I sit down and talk to my family and my managers and my promoter, if that's not the best thing to do then I'm not going to be stubborn. I'm smart enough, like (Golden Boy Promotions CEO) Richard (Schaefer) said, I have a college degree; I'm smart enough to know that I'm not going to be chasing a dream that's not going to come true again. I know when it's time to go and I know when it's time to stop.”
