Diaz vs. Katsidis In January?

In the latest boxing news, Golden Boy Promotions has won the purse bid of $1,500,000 for the WBO mandatory lightweight clash between super champion Juan Diaz (33-0, 17 KOs) and interim champion Michael Katsidis (23-0, 20 KOs), which has a possible date of January 26th. However, if Diaz fails to sign the contract, he’ll be stripped of his WBO lightweight title, and if Katsidis fails to sign, it will give Diaz up to 18 months go comply with the obligations for his mandatory. Both are expected to sign, however. Diaz, 24, is slated to get an 80% cut, while Katsidis is to get 20%.

Diaz has expressed interest in fighting Manny Pacquiao, but the Filipino star has seemed reluctant in wanting to fight, instead opting to fight David Diaz, a far less threatening target than Juan. In deciding on facing Katsidis, Diaz will be facing the easily the hardest puncher of his career. Katsidis punches like a welterweight, and has true one-punch power and will be a firm test for Diaz. Though Katsdis has a porous defense, very few of his opponents have been able to stand in front of him long enough to take advantage of this.

Up to this point, nothing Diaz has faced will prepare him for the type of punches he will be hit with by Katsidis. Diaz, who recently defeated both Julio Diaz and Acelino Freitas, neither of which remotely had the type of one-punch power that Katsidis has. In Freitas’ case, he was pretty much shot as a fighter going into the bout, and looked far from his best in the process of quitting in the 8th round.

While most fans and sportswriters alike will likely be predicting Diaz to beat Katsidis, mostly due to Diaz’s high volume punch output, he seems almost tailor made for Katsidis, who thrives when his opponents come right at him, allowing him to easily trade with him. Diaz fights almost exclusively head to head with his opponents, trading shots and trying to make them quit with his non-stop volley of punches. However, Diaz could be in for a big shock against Katsidis, who punches hard enough to take his opponents head off.

In his last bout against southpaw Czar Amonsot, a fighter with power almost equal to Katsidis, Katsidis was cut badly early in the bout and fought with a badly cut eye. Amonsot, however, after the first couple of rounds, decided it was better to stay on the outside and fight in short flurries rather than trying to stand in front of Katsidis and risk getting knocked out. As it was, Amonsot reportedly suffered neurological problems after his bout with Katsidis from all the repeated powerful head shots he took.