By Chet Mills: Former two-time lightweight champion Julio Diaz (35-4, 26 KOs) was far too much for his over-matched opponent David Torres (20-1, 13 KOs), taking him out in the 5th round of a badly one-sided fight that was scheduled for 10-rounds at the Playboy Mansion, in Beverly Hills, California, on Wednesday night. Diaz, 28, making his first appearance since losing his IBF lightweight title in a 9th round stoppage to Juan Diaz in October 2007, knocked Torres, 30, down two times in the fight, once in the third round (a technical knockdown) and another time in the 5th round.
Following the knockdown in the 5th, Torres, whose left side of his face was badly swollen with his left eye nearly swollen shut, was examined by the ringside doctor who advised for the referee to stop the fight. At 1;25, referee Tony Krebs stopped the fight giving Diaz the victory.
Going into this fight, Torres was unbeaten, which I suppose is one of the reasons that he got the fight, since it would look good on paper. However, if one were to look at Torres’ record, they’d see that he had fought almost entirely marginal opposition, many of which had flat out losing records. At the same time, most of Torres fights had taken place in his home state of Washington, which allowed Torres to fight mainly in front of friendly audiences. In facing Diaz, however, Torres was getting a tremendous leap up in competition, and one that he couldn’t hope to be competitive in. Well, I take that back; Torres did have a chance, a small one, which consisted on him either getting lucky and possibly knocking Diaz out or knocking him down a few times and possibly winning by a decision.
It was clear as early as the first round that Torres had virtually no chance of scoring a knockout, given his poor hand speed, average power and in ability to cut off the ring. That said, Torres did have a very good first round and was able to hit Diaz with a big number of left hands. It was weird combination of Torres not yet knowing how to lose, being that he was undefeated, and Diaz coming off a real battering in his loss to Juan Diaz in his last fight. As such, Diaz looked uncomfortable in the first round, appearing un-confident each time he was hit, as if he was resigned to take another beating.
In the 2nd and 3rd rounds, Diaz came roaring back landing beautiful double left hooks to the body and head, mixing up the shots with each combination thrown. He constantly moved around the ring, keeping the slower Torres plodding after him and eating leather as he went. One particularly hard left hook to the body drove Torres backwards 10 feet to the ropes where he bounced off of them, looking hurt.
The referee moved in and ruled it as a technical knockdown, and gave him a standing eight count. Later on near the end of the round, Diaz nailed Torres with two consecutive left hooks to the head, staggering him and sending him to the corner. Diaz then tagged him with a 4-punch flurry as the ended, perhaps much to Torres’ relief. In the meantime, Torres was beginning to show signs of huge swelling on the entire left side of his face, effecting his left eye and cheek.
The 4th round was all Diaz, as he moved around the ring like a Matador, making Torres miss him repeatedly as he charged forward seemingly with two left feet. Diaz would smoothly move round of his way and tag him with left hooks and right hands as he would go by. Diaz spent of the round moving, then setting up his offense for a quick two-three punch burst, and then would begin moving once again. Obviously, this is some kind of new style of fighting for Diaz, for in the past he would have most likely stood in front of Torres and tried to take him out with rapid fire combinations to the body and head. However, in losses to Juan Diaz and Jose Luis Castillo, Diaz seem to have learned that he couldn’t stand in trade with each fighter and hope to beat all of them.
At the start of the 5th round, the left side of Torres’ face had swollen up grotesquely, making him look nothing like he had before the fight started. Luckily for Torres, he didn’t have long to suffer, as Diaz immediately tore into him with brutal combinations to the body and head. Diaz was no longer moving at this point and was just plain heaving leather to try and get Torres out of there.
A short while into the round, Diaz hammered Torres with a big left hand that dropped him to the canvas. After he got up, Torres was marched by the referee over to the ringside doctor so that he could examine his face, which had swollen even more during the round. The ringside doctor then instructed for the referee to waive off the right, which officially was stopped by referee Tony Krebs at 1:25 of the 5th round.