By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz is considered to be a huge underdog in his fight against former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) this month on April 27th at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, UK. Diaz, 33, has been picked out specifically to be a sacrificial lamb for Khan to slaughter in this fight.
Diaz said to Sky Sports News: “They think it’s a safe fight, for him to come back and rebuild his career and his confidence. He took on Carlos Molina in his last fight…If they chose me for Amir to look great in his hometown. I think it’s the worst mistake they made.”
Although Khan’s promoters at Golden Boy aren’t coming out and calling this another safe tune-up fight for Khan it essentially is just that. What tips you off to this fact is that Golden Boy has selected a non-top 15 ranked fighter instead of someone ranked in the top tier.
Believe me, this isn’t an accident. Diaz is Carlos Molina part 2 for Khan. However, Diaz is definitely an upgrade from Molina, and given Khan has a weak chin that betrays him when he’s facing big punchers there’s a possibility that Diaz could score a knockout in this fight if Khan makes the mistake of fighting in the same manner that he did against Molina last December.
Khan supposedly was fighting in a safety first manner against Molina, but he was still tagged an awful lot in the first 7 rounds before Molina was too tired and too hurt to initiate any offensive attacks.
I’m not predicting a win for Diaz because this is still clearly a mismatch that Golden Boy has set up for Khan, but I think Diaz will have a chance if he can land something hard on Khan’s glass chin.
One thing that Diaz has in his favor is that Khan is going to be fighting in the UK in front of a packed Motorpoint Arena crowd of 9,000 and the fans will be cheering loudly for him from start to finish. If you’ve learned anything about Khan it’s the fact that he fights in a reckless manner when he’s in front of a large cheering crowd.
It doesn’t matter that his new trainer Virgil Hunter will be telling him to play it safe. Khan will only be half listening to him because he’s more focused on trying to play to the crowd. Khan will find immediate success in this fight and it’ll be too easy for him due to Golden Boy picking out another easy mark.
Once Khan gets too cocky, he’ll leave himself open to getting hit in exchanges by Diaz and that’s where we could see Khan get his bell rung and end up on the canvas staring at the lights. I don’t think it’s definitely going to happen but I’m giving Diaz a decent chance of knocking Khan out cold in this fight.
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