Round by Round Coverage; Juan Diaz-Michael Katsidis

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Rick Reeno - On Saturday night, two of the more exciting fighters in the sport, Juan Diaz (33-1, 17 KOs) and Michael Katsidis (23-1, 20 KOs), collide in a potential fight-of-the-year matchup at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

A crossroads battle for two young lightweights with everything to lose. Both of them are coming off devastating defeats. Most boxers would have taken an easy fight on the comeback, but not these two guys. Nobody would have blamed either of them for taking an easy fight. To make it in the lightweight division, where there are so many lucrative opponents, an easy fight doesn't exist. The B-level fighters at lightweight are better than many of the A-level fighters who occupy other weight divisions.

A few months ago, Diaz was on top of the boxing world with three of the four major lightweight titles around his waist. On March 8 in Cancun, Mexico, he was beaten, bloodied and outpointed by Nate Campbell. Only few weeks later, on March 22, Michael Katsidis, ahead on points, got careless and was stopped in the tenth-round of an action-packed fight by Joel Casamayor. [details]

[steptwome]

Good read except for the notion tyhat Katsidis "Got Careless"..... Thats taking a little shine off of the Casamayor "STOPPAGE" ..... He was stopped period, point blank

[OctoberRed]

Good read except for the notion tyhat Katsidis "Got Careless"..... Thats taking a little shine off of the Casamayor "STOPPAGE" ..... He was stopped period, point blank

He jumped right in to a punch. How is that not careless?

[Slotff]

He jumped right in to a punch. How is that not careless?

It was more Casamayor timing it than it was Katsidis jumping into it. The article downplays Casa's victory. It was a brutal shot.

[edgarg]

Good read except for the notion tyhat Katsidis "Got Careless"..... Thats taking a little shine off of the Casamayor "STOPPAGE" ..... He was stopped period, point blank

If you sawthe fight, as I did, you'd have seen that Katsidis did INDEED get careless. He had won almost every round up to the late rd stoppage.

[Scott9945]

He jumped right in to a punch. How is that not careless?

That's the way I saw it. You can't be that reckless against an experienced top level pro like Casamayor. He literally did jump into that punch.

[edgarg]

It was more Casamayor timing it than it was Katsidis jumping into it. The article downplays Casa's victory. It was a brutal shot.

yes, it WAS a brutal shot, but Casamayor had been trying to "time him" for the previous 3 rounds and had failed. This last time....he got lucky. It couldn't be called anything else but that. He was being beaten both to the punch, and in the exchanges all the time.

Casamayor looked VERY rusty.

[trainhard_187]

Katsidas takes this one. Diaz puts up a good fight. Katsidas by decision.

[Miburo]

Katsidis was ahead by one point on two of the cards and down three on the other. If had gone to decision it could have gone either way, he wasn't blowing Casamayor out (that brutal 10-7 first round alone made for a deep deficit). I had it roughly even on points by the 10th if I recall.

[joseph5620]

[QUOTE=edgarg;4031088]yes, it WAS a brutal shot, but Casamayor had been trying to "time him" for the previous 3 rounds and had failed.




Wait a minute, didn't Katsidis get hurt or knocked down earlier in the fight too? He had been "jumping in" all night just as much as Casamayor had been trying to" time him" all night. The last time he did it he got knocked out. I don't understand why certain fighters always seem to get so many excuses for getting knocked out. This is boxing where a KO can happen at any time and most of the time that is the intent of the fighter. There is no "luck" to that.