By Mark Vester
At the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, Juan Manuel Marquez (48-3, 36KOs) knocked out Juan Diaz (33-2, 17KOs) in nine rounds to capture the vacant WBA and WBO lightweight titles in a classic war.
Diaz came out with a lot pressure, staying close to Marquez and throwing multiple combinations. Marquez battled back with his own combinations. The two of them began to stage a way that brough the entire crowd to their feet. Marquez tried countering back, but Diaz, like his nickname, would bull his way forward and continued to throw more combinations that were tagging Marquez. In the second, Diaz continued to press forward and Marquez wanted to fight back and continue their war. Diaz stunned Marquez against the ropes with a left had. Marquez would battle back to get himself out of trouble. Diaz stepped up the pace even more in the third, pressing forward with combinations to get Marquez back against the ropes. Marquez pushed Diaz back with a hard combination to the head and tried to counter by using his uppercut.
In the fourth, Diaz was walking him back and landing big combinations on Marquez against the ropes. Marquez would have to throw his own combinations to fight his way off the ropes, but at the same time he was fighting in the exact manner that Diaz wanted. By the fifth, Marquez's face was starting to swell. Marquez was throwing some vicious body punches and Diaz would fire off combos to head. They continued to trade big punches on the ropes and then to the center of the ring. A cut would open near the corner of Marquez's left eye.
Diaz comes out with even more pressure in the sixth, and began to target Marquez's body more often than in the previous rounds. They continued to trade more bombs for full final minute of the round. Marquez began to get off with his right hand in the seventh. He also went to Diaz's body. Diaz would just press forward and threw multiple combos to break through Marquez's guard and landed some huge punches that appeared to slowly wear Marquez down. In the eight, a cut opened near the right eye of Diaz. Marquez would start to land his money punch, the uppercut, and came back downstairs to the body. During a combination, Marquez stunned Diaz with a big left and he continued to pound Diaz with punches from angles until the bell.
Marquez started to fight his way back in with more accurate punches. Diaz stayed close and threw combinations against the ropes to try and turn the tide that was starting to go to Marquez. In the ninth, Marquez landed a huge uppercut to send Diaz down. As Diaz got up, Marquez threw a massive combination without an uppercut that sent Diaz down hard on his back and out. The ref quickly stopped the fight.
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