By Keith Idec
ATLANTIC CITY — Emmanuel Lucero has much more left than most boxing observers thought.
It still wasn’t quite enough to overcome Jorge Diaz tonight at Bally’s Events Center. Diaz and Lucero traded power punches throughout their extremely entertaining 10-round featherweight fight, but the undefeated Diaz (15-0, 9 KOs) built enough of an early lead to overcome Lucero’s late rally, when a tired Diaz had to survive mostly on guts.
Diaz won on all three scorecards, though two cards credited Diaz with a much wider win than he deserved (99-92). The scorecard of the third judge, Fair Lawn native and River Vale resident Steve Weisfeld, was an accurate indication of what occurred in the ring (96-94).
Nevertheless, Diaz demonstrated great resolve by withstanding Lucero’s brutal body attack during the eighth, ninth and 10th rounds, when the back-and-forth action often left fans cheering wildly.
“How did I get through it?,” Diaz asked. “Just willpower. It’s a fight. Either you go hard or you go home. I’m not going to back down. I tried to let him get tired, let him win the first half of the round and then make the final impression [in] the round and steal the round. That’s what I was doing.”
Lucero didn’t think he did enough to win the bout, but he knows the non-televised fight will help his stock once word spreads throughout the boxing industry about how fresh and strong he looked seven years after Manny Pacquiao knocked him out in the third round of their fight in Los Angeles.
“People thought I was washed up,” said Lucero (24-6-1, 14 KOs), of Albany, N.Y. “But I’m back. ‘The Butcher’ is back. I was in camp and I trained to be in better shape. I think I’m better than ever. I’m better than before. I’ll be 32 next week, but I think I’ve come back stronger, more mature.”
