By Mark Vester

At the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz (33-1, 17 KOs) won a twelve-round split-decision over Michael Katsidis (23-2, 20 KOs) in a tough, physical battle. The scores were 115-113 for Katsidis, 116-112 for Diaz, 115-113 for Diaz. Diaz with a big win after coming off of his first loss back in March to Nate Campbell. Katsidis loses his second in a row, coming off a knockout loss to Joel Casamayor in March. The fight did not seem close and Diaz appeared to win the majority of the rounds.

They came out jabbing in the first. Katsidis landed the harder shots with Diaz landing a high volume of jabs. In the second, Diaz was starting to unload with his usual bulk of combinations on the inside. He used ring generalship to move around Katsidis in circles while landing his combinations. A small cut opened up near the left eye of Katsidis in the second.

Diaz controlled the third with his jab and once again circled around the power of Katsidis to set up other big shots. At this point Katsidis had no answers for Diaz's left jab. Katsidis tried to change the tide in the fourth with power combinations, but Diaz would answer back and circle to the side. Diaz continued to dominate with his boxing in the fifth, opening a cut on the right eye of Katsidis and causing some swelling. During the sixth, Diaz was rocking Katsidis with some very strong combinations and outpunched him when they would trade.

The seventh saw Diaz begin to target the body of Katsidis, he continued to onslaught with his combinations and Katsidis had no answers. Diaz took the eigth off a bit and Katsidis began to get in the fight with body shots and come back upstairs to the head before Diaz could step away. Katsidis continued working his way back in the ninth, targeting the body and working his way to the head.

Diaz would start to regain his footing in the tenth, outlanding Katsidis on the inside with better punches. Katsidis came right back in the eleventh, and outlanded Diaz with sheer volume. Diaz would take the fight to Katsidis in the twelfth and final round. They would get the crowd to their feet in the final minute as they traded punches at close range with Katsidis trying to do his best to win the final round.  

On the undercard;

Rocky Juarez (28-4, 20 KOs) stopped former champion Jorge Rodrigo Barrios (47-4-1, 34 KOs) in eleven-rounds to capture the WBO Latino junior lightweight title.

Barrios was targeting the body in the early rounds and then trying to go upstairs. Juarez was working behind the jab. An uppercut by Barrios buckled the legs of Juarez in the second. The right eye of Barrios was swelling by the third. Juarez's counter left-hook pushed Barrios back during some exchanges in the third, but Barrios continued to press forward. Barrios lost a point in the third for a low blow, though Juarez did not complain and was not hurt. There appeared to be a scratch bleeding on Juarez's head.

Barrios would resume his pace in the fourth round, throwing a lot of big punches to Juarez's body. Juarez answered back, but not often enough with very hard counters. The two would wage an inside war in the fifth, with a lot of body damage by both men. A three punch combo pushed Juarez back during the heated fifth round action. Juarez began to develop some heavy swelling over the right eye by the sixth. Juarez made the sixth close with a late rally in the closing seconds. In the eight, the ref took another point away for a borderline low blow, but Barrios closed the round strong with a big rally. Two went to war in the tenth when Barrios appeared to be tired. The crowd was on their feet as both guys were banging it out.

The continued the war in the eleveth, and you could notice that Barrios' mouth was bleeding bad. Soon the mouth was spewing blood everywhere. Barrios was caught while his legs were unsteady and he went down. When he got up, the left side of his mouth was badly cut, with the lip suffering a very bad tear. The doctor looked and stopped it after the mouth of Barrios was bleeding everywhere.

At the time of the stoppage, although Barrios looked to be ahead, one judge had it even, another had Barrios ahead by four and Juarez was ahead by two.

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