By Scott Gilfoid: Virgil Hunter, the trainer for former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan, sees his opponent Julio Diaz as a serious threat to Khan in their fight this Saturday night in Sheffield, UK. While the vast majority of the boxing world sees Diaz as just another past his best opponent that was hand-picked by Khan’s promoters for to look good against, Hunter sees Diaz as still being a high quality fighter of the first order.
Hunter said to the telegraph.co.uk “Julio Diaz is not just an opponent. He’s a serious two-time world champion, a dangerous rival, and should be respected as such. He’s a formidable foe…this is not just a comeback fight; this is a tough championship fight.”
Hunter doesn’t say why Diaz isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning organizations or why Diaz hasn’t beaten a quality fighter since 2005, and Hunter doesn’t say why Diaz was destroyed in 3 rounds by Kendall Holt in May 2011 or why Diaz was beaten by Herman Ngoudjo and Victor Cayo or stopped by Juan Diaz and Rolando Reyes.
Yeah, this is a tough championship fight alright. I have a lot of respect for Hunter as a trainer, but I don’t buy for a second what he’s saying about Diaz being a championship level opponent. If that was the case then why he blown out by Holt two years ago in a quick 3rd round knockout?
The fact is this is a mismatch and I just wonder how much longer Golden Boy Promotions will keep putting Khan in with soft opposition before they put him back in with quality fighters.
Khan is talking about moving up to welterweight to look for the big fights at that weight, and it’s unclear whether he’ll bother to try and avenge his losses to Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson or if he’ll face Lucas Matthysse so that he can “clean up the light welterweight division.”
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