By Eric Thomas: Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) dodged a bullet tonight in barely scraping by with a close 12 round unanimous decision over Julio Diaz (40-8-1, 29 KO’s) at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, England.
Khan was constantly in trouble from the hard punches from Diaz, and he got by on sheer luck in the last half of the fight. Khan was hurt by big shots from Diaz and had to hold onto him in rounds 9, 10 and 11.
Diaz landed a nice left hand that knocked Khan down in the 4th round. It’s possible that Khan got his feet tangled during the knockdown, but there’s no mistaking the fact that Diaz had Khan hurt frequently in last four rounds of the fight.
To Khan’s credit, he was able to use movement and strategic holding to survive the fight on his feet, but it’s troubling that a fighter like Diaz was able to hurt Khan like he did.
Diaz isn’t considered a huge puncher but you’d find that hard to believe the way he was stalking Khan down in the last part of the fight and continually hurting him over and over again. It was like watching another Marcos Maidana going after Khan. Diaz didn’t give Khan the same kind of beating that Maidana did, but he definitely had Khan hurt more often.
You have to question the way the fight was scored by the judges because for them go give Khan the victory, they have to give him rounds in which Khan was staggered by Diaz. I don’t see how the judges could give rounds where Khan was staggering around the ring.
The judges’ scores were 114-113, 115-113, 115-112.
***
On the undercard, Deontay Wilder (28-0, 28 KO’s) was too much for Audley Harrison (31-7, 23 KO’s) in stopping him in the 1st round. The 6’7” Wilder and 6’6” Audley exchanged jabs for the first minute of action until Deontay backed Audley up to the corner.
Instead of trying to escape, Audley stood there waiting for Deontay, as if Audley was looking to land a big left counter like he had used to hurt his opponents in the recent Prizefighter tourney that Audley won. Deontay never let Audley get a chance to land one of his big left hands, because he nailed Audley with a powerful right hand that turned Audley’s head and body sideways.
The shot definitely hurt Audley to the point where he was stunned and not able to start firing back shots of his own. This let Deontay open up on him with a flurry of windmill like punches thrown with poor form. Most of the shots missed, but a couple of clubbing right hands found their mark on the back of Audley’s head and were enough to send him down on the canvas.
The referee failed to noticed that Deontay appeared to connect with at least two shots while Audley was down, but it wouldn’t have mattered unless the referee had disqualified Deontay. Audley was far too hurt to continue fighting after he got up, and the referee stopped the fight after looking in Audley’s eyes.
Other boxing results:
Anthony Ogogo KO2 Kieron Gray
Terry Flannigan RTD 4 Nate Campbell
Rick Godding pts 6 Bradley Pryce
Adam Jones draw 4 Tomasz Mazurikew
Gary Sykes UD 10 Jon Kays
Haroon Khan pts 4 Brett Fidoe
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