Eduardo “Sugar” Nunez entered his junior lightweight title defense Saturday in Los Mochis, Mexico, with just one loss and having stopped all but one of his vanquished opponents. Challenger Christopher Diaz-Velez, already a veteran of multiple world title fights and having been a hard-luck loser in at least a couple of his five losses, was the sort of opponent against whom a belt holder could test his mettle.
Both men knew what they were up against. But neither knew what they were getting into.
In a brilliantly fought back-and-forth battle at Centro De Usos Multiples in Nunez’s hometown, the titleholder was pushed to the brink before earning a 12-round unanimous decision win over Diaz-Velez in what is sure to land on many Fight of the Year lists.
The 28-year-old Nunez, now 29-1 (27 KOs), entered on an 18-fight winning streak, never faltering since losing a six-rounder back in 2018 and most recently outpointing Masanori Rikiishi for the belt in May in Japan. He was back in friendly confines in Los Mochis on Saturday, with the 30-year-old Diaz-Velez, an American-born Puerto Rican now living in Orlando, Florida, daring to enter his home for yet another shot at a title after coming up short against Masayuki Ito in 2018 and Emanuel Navarrete in 2021.
The first round offered no hint of what was to come, as both fighters kept their distance through a sleepy introduction. In the second, Nunez finally broke the ice, firing off a couple of pilot combinations that mostly connected with gloves and forearms – but also prompted a return left-hand counter from Diaz-Velez. Still, it was mostly calculating, measure-taking and quiet work from both fighters.
Both fighters ventured into the pocket and let their hands go more willingly in the third. Diaz-Velez answered a Nunez flurry with a punishing overhand right that spun the titleholder’s head and bounced him off the ropes, drawing a gasp from the Los Mochis faithful. Nunez chewed it up and replied with a lead hook that caught Diaz-Velez mid-feint, swinging the crowd back to a state of delight. Now the fight was underway.
A cartoonishly looping left hand from Nunez nearly screwed him into the canvas late in the round, forcing him off balance and leading to a slip call from the referee when the fighter brushed his glove on the ring surface.
Nunez reprioritized his body work in the fourth, stabbing here and there with the jab, then opening up with combinations and working around his opponent’s high guard. Diaz-Velez would land a sharp right hand here and there, but he planted his feet and took what was given him by Nunez, who increasingly found a range from which he could work in and out. Blasting at Diaz-Velez’s midsection in bursts and then bailing out of range, Nunez piled up points and gradually chipped away at his opponent’s defenses.
Diaz-Velez reset in the fifth by working off his jab, leading to a few sparkling combinations that gave Nunez pause. Searching for a way back in, Nunez lunged and left himself open to a few stinging counters. Diaz-Velez closed the round with a combination and a long, bootlaces-to-belly left hook before the bell. It wasn’t exactly Corrales-Castillo, but the sporadic action was educated, engaging stuff for the aficionado.
Nunez flipped a switch in the sixth, stalking Diaz-Velez and pouring on punches as his opponent backed out and kept up his guard. Perhaps sensing a crack in the foundation, the hometown fighter closed the gap and drilled away, facing little return fire from Diaz-Velez, who eventually tucked Nunez’s right hand under his elbow to slow the onslaught. Nunez’s body work was beginning to pay dividends, and now uppercuts and an occasional right hand were piercing Diaz-Velez’s defenses.
Diaz-Velez finally opened up before round’s end, landing a few crisp combinations. He wasn’t done yet. With Nunez now standing within range, Diaz-Velez thumped a hook to his ribs and doubled up the left with an uppercut that rattled his opponent’s molars. Now standing toe to toe, the fighters exchanged, and despite Nunez’s well-earned reputation as a terrifying power puncher at 130, Diaz-Velez hung tough, giving as good as he got.
In the seventh, Nunez took the initiative, but whenever Diaz-Velez shelled up and seemed unwilling or unable to answer back, he would unspool a calm but effective combination that forced Nunez to rethink. Midway through the round, Diaz-Velez had one of his best sequences of the fight, punctuating one punching blitz with a flush right hand upstairs. But during his follow-up, Nunez caught him with a right hand that landed awkwardly, low on Diaz-Velez’s neck – maybe even the shoulder – which sent him surging down and forward, glancingly touching his glove to the canvas.
Diaz-Velez wasn’t hurt, but the referee ruled it a knockdown as Centro De Usos Multiples erupted. The visitor momentarily pleaded his case, with no luck, but he immediately shook it off and waded back into the fray. After a quick 1-2, Nunez beat Diaz-Velez to the punch with a right hand to the temple, this time sending him down more conclusively, if not concussively. Again Diaz-Velez was on his feet in no time, and again he briefly litigated with the ref, but he had no argument in this case – and the electrified Los Mochis crowd knew it. A 10-7 round for Nunez would require a different approach from the challenger.
In the eighth, Diaz-Velez began throwing caution to the wind, trading with Nunez and landing several clean shots along the way. But Nunez’s combination of power, relentless punch volume and active footwork put Diaz-Velez at a constant disadvantage, with a series of battles going to the challenger but the war slowly being won by the man from Los Mochis.
Credit the rare resilience of Diaz-Velez, who not only failed to wilt but seemed to draw energy from his ire: He threw blow for blow with Nunez, unflinchingly, to close Round 8, planting a hook to his face and coaxing the first clinch from the belt holder on the night.
The gradual erosion brought on by Nunez’s power, however, finally began to show in the 10th, when early exchanges between the fighters were punctuated by a clean left hand from Nunez and then a clubbing right hand that truly wobbled Diaz-Velez for the first time. The challenger rose to meet the moment again, squaring up and unleashing a two-fisted attack, bullying Nunez against the ropes and landing a hammering body shot and a swooping right hand up top. Nunez backed him off with a right hand, but Diaz-Velez came back with one of his own that would have put down many lesser fighters. Nunez ate it without blinking.
Back and forth they went, Diaz-Velez showing impossible reserves and Nunez continuing to pour leather into his body. The challenger opened a cut over Nunez’s left eye, but still the titleholder chopped away and, after an untold number of unanswered body shots, lifted decibel levels at Centro De Usos Multiples to their highest point of the evening. Diaz-Velez, finally on unsteady legs, and Nunez, seemingly nearing the bottom of his fuel tank – yet both still unreservedly spilling their guts – had earned the respect of one another and every observer from Los Mochis to Luxembourg.
As the bell rang to start the 12th and final round, attendees rose to their feet, challenger and champion embraced at center ring, and each gave freely whatever remained to give away. It was the most active (if not the most technical) frame of the fight, and it served as a totem for the fight and a tribute to all that is honest and brutish and beautiful about boxing. Diaz-Velez arguably took the round, but there was too much water under the bridge as the scores were 117-109 (twice) and 116-110, all for Nunez.
For once, the scorecards, and even the outcome, felt extraneous – a silly attempt at quantifying the boundless wills of two men and the essence of a sport.
Jason Langendorf is the former Boxing Editor of ESPN.com, was a contributor to Ringside Seat and the Queensberry Rules, and has written about boxing for Vice, The Guardian, Chicago Sun-Times and other publications. A member of the Boxing Writers Association of America, he can be found at LinkedIn and followed on X and Bluesky.
