By Cliff Rold
Photo © Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages
Boxing’s youth movement is here.
The need for youth, for fire, for hungry fighters willing to lay it all on the line and get fans out of their seats (instead of slinking into them half asleep) was never more evident than in the contrast between boxing’s two major main events over the last two weeks.
Put another way, Kelly Pavlik v. Jermain Taylor was a great fight. The rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera last weekend did not resemble that remark.
It’s in that light that the boxing world prepares for a bout that is front and center in the sports quest to be young again. This Saturday we get one of the leaders of the movement as 24-year old lightweight contender and alphablet titlist Juan Diaz (32-0, 16 KO, Ring Magazine #1 Contender, WBA/WBO titlist) of Houston, Texas meets Robert Johnson at the crossroads; Johnson is bringing veteran Julio Diaz (34-3, 25 KO, #2, IBF titlist) of Coachella, California. It will be live on HBO from the Sears Center in Chicago.
It’s hard to fathom a match between two men still quite a ways from thirty being a crossroads fight, but that’s exactly what is at hand. Julio Diaz, still only 27, has been a pro since 1999, is a product of the fighting Diaz clan that included big brother and fan favorite Antonio, and has faced the better competition of the two. Unfortunately for him, that better competition has meant three losses.
Touted as one of the sports top prospects by his second year as a professional, Diaz was rapidly making his way through the natural progression fights of a potential star. In August 2001, Diaz stepped into the ring with fellow undefeated prospect Dario Esalas. The two traded knockdowns with Diaz down first and Esalas down for the count in four. When that led to an October 2001 battle with veteran Angel Manfredy, the boxing world wondered if the night would mark the true birth of its next great champion.
Diaz would drop a narrow split decision.
There were arguments for both men having walked away victorious but one couldn’t help noticing that Diaz had struggled to land cleanly throughout the night on a Manfredy who had proven in previous, decisive, losses to Floyd Mayweather, Diego Corrales and Stevie Johnston to be a notch below the upper echelon Diaz was aiming for.
It got worse for Diaz on April 26, 2002. He entered the ring still touted as a future star in his ESPN2 main event against 14-4 journeyman Juan “Pollo” Valenzuela. At 1:56 of the first round, Diaz had picked up his second loss. A sensational hook landed while Diaz’s head was pinned against the top rope left, his eyes a mask of separated senses, a dictionary definition of out on his feet.
Diaz’s stock plummeted in some corners but the losses ended up being what they should be for a young professional. From them he learned and he grew as a fighter. While he did have to deal with the slight of HBO turning him down as an opponent for Floyd Mayweather in 2003, he also had a chance to get a nice win streak going.
Six straight victories would tick by, all against gradually increasing levels of competition, tough outs like Miguel Huerta and Courtney Burton, on the way to picking up his first alphabelt title (IBF) against Javier Jauregui in May 2004. It was beginning to look like the great prospect had finally become a great contender.
Jose Luis Castillo got in the way of his becoming a great champion.
A March 2005 shot against the then-recognized World champion at 135 lbs. proved to be yet another painful lesson. Stripped of his IBF belt for circumstances best discussed elsewhere, Diaz would wither in the second half of the bout under Castillo’s relentless assault, stopped in the tenth round. After such a rough loss, Diaz did the only thing a fighter, a real fighter, can do.
He regrouped, reset and has returned to the brink of great opportunity. With two easy confidence builders followed by consecutive wins over veterans Ricky Quiles and Jesus Chavez (for his second IBF bauble) under his belt, a Julio Diaz win Saturday puts him in the prime position of primary challenger to the recognized champion of the world, now-reigning Joel Casamayor (34-3, 21 KO) of Cuba.
The only thing in Diaz’s way is Diaz.
Juan Diaz to be exact (making a note so that all this Diaz doesn’t confuse you). The little college kid that could did this past April in his first big step-up fight against former alphablet titlist Acelino Freitas. Eating a couple tough bombs from the Brazilian early on, Diaz showed the chin and tenacity that mark a true world class fighter. A pro since the tender age of seventeen, Juan Diaz was carefully constructed to that moment and the bigger moments that begin this weekend.
Unlike Julio, this Diaz didn’t have to wear the tag of next big thing almost right away. The man-child in the ring was clearly a work in progress from the start, a fighter who would need to be guided carefully to maximize his potential and the potential earning power of his story. Let’s face it; there can never be enough American born potential kings with a book under their arm and an aw-shucks approach to the game. This Houston native has it in spades.
He’s also had something else, something innate. Stories and camera presence only make it so far; fighters worth remembering do it in the ring. They’re gamers, able to rise to their best in the situations that most call for it. Diaz has faced three such moments. The most recent, and biggest, was Freitas. It was Juan’s first brush with a fighter proven to belong at or near the peak of the sport. He aced the test, forcing Freitas to quit after eight, picking up Freitas’ WBO belt.
His first such exam occurred on November 04, 2004. Yes, it’s been that long since Diaz snatched his first alphabelt away from then-WBA titlist Lakva Sim, a rugged Mongolian expected to push the kid to his limits.
Diaz blew him out.
Using a jab and rapid combinations, Diaz won ten rounds on two scorecards and eight on the other, capturing a unanimous decision. With the top of the division then occupied with monsters like the late Diego Corrales and Castillo, Diaz’s team was smart enough to continue developing him like a rising contender all while making him comfortable with a belt around his waist.
His second big test would come on the undercard of the 2006 tilt between Floyd Mayweather and Zab Judah, an affair with Jose “older brother of Miguel” Cotto. Coming into the bout, each had faced similar levels of competition and fingers were crossed that the two could provide a classic. Cotto entered the ring 27-0. He left a dominated 27-1. Where Diaz beat Sim often with an outside game, against Cotto he mauled, working him over with short combinations, again earning a unanimous decision.
Like I said, he’s a gamer, showing up with his A-stuff on the nights that demand it. That could be a bad sign for Julio.
Following the post-fight press conference for the Freitas bout, I had the chance to speak at length with Juan Diaz’s manager, architect if you will, Willie Savannah. After grooming his young charge for the bulk of this decade, Savannah named Julio Diaz and Erik Morales as the next fighters in their sights. The Morales fight was not to be; fight fans may have gotten the better end of the deal. There comes a time when every management team with a thoroughbred loosens the reins, placing their faith in the properly built combination of learned experience and broader potential.
This is that time for Juan Diaz.
Julio Diaz, perhaps in his last opportunity to make his career more than just good, will have other ideas.
One of them will have their way this weekend.
Scenarios: For fans interested in the bigger picture, this weekend sets up a hell of a lot of action at 135 lbs. It’s not, like welterweight, a deeply talented division. It is though a division full of blue collar fighters and fan-friendly fights.
For the hardcore boxing wonks, the debate will continue as to whether Casamayor’s claim to the title is worthy given his long layoff, but the lay of the land suggests that 1) Casamayor might not even be in the debate by the end of the year and 2) the lineage of the title and the alphablets will likely all be lined up by the end of 2008. Here’s a look at what it will take to get us there:
Casamayor, the lineal champion and just shy of 37, is also for reasons that don’t merit discussion the WBC’s interim titlist. Its regular titlist is 31-year old 1996 U.S. Olympian David Diaz (33-1-1, 17 KO, #3). Each has been granted a ‘voluntary’ fight before they will be mandated to face each other. Casamayor’s November foe will be stylish boxer 27-year old Jose Armando Santa Cruz (25-2, 14 KO, unrated), the man David Diaz knocked out for his belt with Cruz ahead wide on the cards, on the undercard of Mosley-Cotto. He’s a threat to Casamayor. David Diaz’s rumored voluntary opponent for a January HBO card, 27-year old mega-action puncher Michael Katsidis (23-0, 20 KO, #5) of Australia, is a bigger threat to all of the above. As stated, the winners allegedly have to face off. No matter what combination of these four emerges, it will take at least half of 2008 before it’s resolved. Don’t be shocked if we’re all talking about a Cruz-Katsidis bout by then.
While this is going on, the winner of Julio v. Juan also has their own sanctioning body obligations in front of them. For once, the super champion nonsense acts as a salve for fans as neither will have the specter of a WBA mandatory. They do have the IBF’s, a for-once legitimate mandatory in Tampa, Florida’s 35-year old Nate Campbell (31-5-1, 25 KO), winner of three straight bouts, two of which were IBF eliminators. I don’t like sanctioning bodies but I like a fight between either Diaz versus the power punching and unpredictable Campbell. It will take one of the Diaz’s going through Campbell to guarantee the final act.
Of course, some are already chattering about the 28-year old Manny Pacquiao (45-3-2, 35 KO, #1 at 130 lbs.) possibly moving up five pounds for one of the tres Diaz’s but, as seen, above politics would likely prevent that. Dollars will be a bigger obstacle with a 130 lb. rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez in the offing for Manny. That leaves us with a potential fall unification bout for all four major alphablets and the lineal championship in class. With youth usually served, I’m going with this long range prediction: next fall, for the whole ball of Lightweight wax…Juan Diaz v. Michael Katsidis in a fight so good it curls the toes.
And that’ll do it for the lightweights. Get ready for one hell of a fight Saturday night.
Moving on to heavyweights…
Holyfield-Ibragimov: Wow, um, there’s so much I could say about this pay-per-view Heavyweight belt fight on Saturday but I find that sometimes less is more. Here’s a little poetry from an old English major:
Holy was a great one;
How can we miss what won’t leave?
All Buyers Beware.
Yuh and Chang: For those who find the “International” in International Boxing Hall of Fame to be more jest than justifiable, this year could prove to be another test of those two poles. With a crop of nominees that has only one super-lock in voting (former all-time great Heavyweight champion Larry Holmes), this is a year to look twice at the ballot.
Then again, if all of the voters knew what they were looking at in the first place, I wouldn’t be writing the following: Anyone who voted sub-flyweight greats Michael Carbajal, Humberto Gonzalez and Ricardo Lopez into the Hall of Fame on their first eligible ballot, and who has never cast a single vote for Korean greats Myung Wuh Yuh or Jung Koo Chang, should probably not be voting at all.
There are plenty of people chomping at the bit to vote Arturo Gatti into the Hall of Fame and plenty who already voted in one-big-win wonders like Ken Norton, Ingemar Johansen and Barry McGuigan, who meet that standard.
Yuh, retired since 1993 and eligible since 1998/99, reigned twice as WBA light flyweight titlist from 1985 to 93. His first reign is the one that should see him enshrined in Canastota. Over seventeen title defenses, Yuh became a fixture on serious pound for pound lists in the early 90s but not against names most people recognize. Like Ricardo Lopez with Saman Sorjaturong and Rosendo Alvarez, Yuh’s career best opponents (Leo Gamez, Hiroki Ioka) are fighters who fall short of being great.
That didn’t mean Lopez wasn’t great and it shouldn’t count against Yuh either. It’s impossible though to ignore that Lopez at least had some exposure to the U.S. fight market. In an “International” Hall of Fame, that should be no excuse. Yuh was almost Lopez’s equal in terms of accomplishment (their two careers are remarkably similar in both consistency and lack of depth to their divisions) with Yuh losing only once in 39 fights. That loss, to Ioka, was immediately avenged. That he did it with great craft and boxing ability is evidenced by his low knockout totals (only 14 in his career). Few if any in America saw any of it.
Chang was an equally great fighter and a pound-for-pound player to those in the 1980s know. Unlike Yuh, he supplied some serious thrills along with consistency. All of his four losses came in title fights, three in his final four fights. He was stopped only once in a total 42 fights, that in his final bout against then- lineal World flyweight king Muangchai Kittikasem in 1991, a thrilling multi-knockdown battle that likely would have been a stronger candidate for fight of the year had there been a YouTube back then.
His reign as WBC titlist ran mostly concurrent with Yuh’s, lasting through sixteen title defenses from 1983-89, ultimately ended by Gonzalez. In fact, it was largely the Chang win that first created the buzz about Gonzalez maybe being a future great. That’s how well regarded the old Korean vet was by then.
Along the way, he defeated a number of quality fighters including Hilario Zapata, future lineal World Strawweight champion Hideyuki Ohashi, and future two-time lineal World Flyweight king Sot Chitalada. Chang retired with a mark of 38-4, with 17 KOs. He has been eligible since 1996/97.
The bulk of Yuh’s and Chang’s careers were fought in the place where 108 lb. Koreans could make money as pro boxers: in Korea. That neither fought the other to declare a true champion at 108, both being from the same homeland, is a stain on each man’s legacy but no more so than the lack of fights Lopez had with Carbajal and Gonzalez.
The sub-flyweight divisions are often derided as unnecessary by those who wouldn’t watch flyweights if there were only one division that low but they are division’s that have come into their own. Lopez, Carbjal and Gonzalez all achieved measures of greatness in their times below the 112 lb. line and were justly rewarded. Ivan Calderon may be heading their in today’s game to join them.
Before any of them became great, in fact before all but Gonzalez turned pro, Yuh and Chang were the men who legitimized the sub-flyweight realm. If these divisions are seen as having merit, and they should be, it is Yuh and Chang that provided their first standard for greatness. It’s criminal that the men who came after them have been recognized for their greatness so easily while these two are ignored so readily.
So to anyone who has a ballot, or knows someone who does, let them know…it is long past time that these men take their place with the best that ever did it. If you just can’t bear to vote for both this year, vote for one this year and one next (probably Chang and then Wuh in order of retirement). Myung Wuh Yuh and Jung Koo Chang were great fighters and great fighters, no matter what nation’s arenas and television stations they played on, belong in the Hall of Fame.
If the only excuse is that “never heard of them, that says more about your boxing knowledge than their rightful places in history.
Cliff’s Notes:
Barrera: I think I made clear that I didn’t particularly like Pacquiao-Barrera II before, during or after the fight. It was a mostly dull encounter between a distracted superstar and a retiring one. That said, being Barrera’s last night in the ring makes it a moment not subject to denigration here. What great fighter’s last fight was all that memorable? While thinking that through, remember everything Barrera gave, everything he left in the ring, and every ounce of respect he earned from the fans. There aren’t many like him…
Pac: I think, given his opponents this year, that Pacquiao has temporarily stifled the growing buzz about him as the primary challenger to Floyd Mayweather as the top pound-for-pound guy. That said, anyone who had Jermain Taylor winning all six rounds against Kelly Pavlik should not accuse anyone else on Planet Earth of lying to themselves…
Dancing: Was it just me or did Floyd Mayweather look livid when he finished in the final two of Dancing with the Stars this week. Floyd clearly isn’t enjoying having to take criticism and not be able to shout back “crème de la crème” whatevers. Note to Floyd: Boxing fans think it’s cool to hawk pay-per-view; people who regularly watch DTWS probably weren’t as impressed when you did that while waiting for scores. The old British dude certainly wasn’t…
A Solid: If you simply must buy the Saturday afternoon Pay-per-view with the heavyweights, the reason to so is on the undercard. Jose Navarro (26-2, 12 KO) and Dimitry Kirilov (28-3, 9 KO), two victims of another Asian great who is likely to get hosed in Hall of Fame voting one day (Masamori Tokuyama), and exceptional fighters in their own right. It should be an excellent technical matchup between top ten jr. bantamweight (115 lb.) pros; well worth the coin if you like the science of the game. An extra to watch for is that both have suffered career stifling robbery losses (Navarro to Katsushige Kawashima and Kirilov to Luis Perez). Will we get home cooking in Mother Russia for the more native Kirilov?...
Final Flurry: And finally, get thee to a television set next Tuesday night as ESPN will be showing something so seldom seen it nearly mirrors Haley’s Comet. That’s right, it’s Contender Season One winner Sergio Mora (19-0, 4 KO) and not just sitting there commenting to Sugar Ray Leonard. He’s actually fighting for the first time in 14 months, third time since October 2005. That’s the schedule of a future champion. Epic stuff. His opponent is Elvin Ayala (18-2, 8 KO), a man who will be there to make Mora look good in the hopes of forwarding his well earned Middleweight title aspirations…Serious, less sarcastic, fans can tune into to see Gatti career-ender Alfonso Gomez (17-3, 8 KO) in a solid test, and his third fight of the year, against worn but still dangerous veteran Ben Tackie (29-7-1, 17 KO)…Don’t over react to Samuel Peter’s near disaster last weekend. Sometime, even the best chins take a dent. However, don’t overrate either. Ruslan Chagaev, not Sam Peter, is the second best heavyweight in the world and he’s got a better resume to prove it…Finally, have you read the story of Kelly Pavlik almost (?) being strong-armed out keeping the trunks he won his title in by a sanctioning body official? You should. It’s the last part of a story at SecondsOut titled “Taylor-Pavlik: “And NEW Middleweight Champion of the World . . .” Check it out…Oh, and I almost forgot. By the time you read this, the result may be in from an intriguing all-Japan bout for the lineal World Flyweight championship. Daisuke Naito (31-2-2, 20 KO, WBC titlist) makes his first defense since upsetting division defense record holder Pongsaklek Wonjongkam and he does it against a potential star. Daiki Kameda (10-0, 7 KO) is the younger brother of Koki, the biggest Asian boxing star not named Manny, and it’s little brother who gets the first shot at a real title. Daiki may be biting off more than he can chew but the whole Kameda crew can fight so this one should be worth tracking down. Guaranteed I’ll be talking about it in seven.
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
