Julio Diaz retires after loss to Thurman

By Boxing News - 04/28/2014 - Comments

Keith Thurman vs Julio Diaz(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: Former two-time IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz (40-10-1, 29 KO’s) has announced his retirement according to the Press Enterprise following his 3rd round stoppage loss to WBA interim welterweight champion Keith Thurman (23-0, 21 KO’s) last Saturday night at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Diaz suffered a rib injury in the 3rd round after getting hit hard by a right hand to the body by Thurman. Diaz ended up not coming out for the 4th round. Diaz, 34, was also knocked down in the 2nd round of the fight.

I believe Diaz is making a mistake in retiring, because I feel he’s still a better fighter than guys like Paulie Malignaggi, who was able to do really well for himself in winning a title off of Vyacheslav Senchenko and getting fights against guys like Adrien Broner. It was obviously a mistake on Diaz’s part in fighting Thurman, but he still has a lot left in the tank when matched against the right guys.

Diaz may not have matched up well against the younger and stronger Thurman, but I thought he did well enough to deserve a win over Amir Khan last year in their fight in Sheffield, UK. Diaz knocked Khan down in the 4th round of the fight, and had him staggering several times in the later rounds. Diaz was in a bad position in being the visiting fighter, and I figured that there was little chance that he was going to get a decision if the fight went to the cards as it did. I had Diaz winning. Diaz also did well in his two fights against Shawn Porter.

Diaz captured the IBF lightweight title for the first time in 2004 in beating Javier Jauregui by a 12 round decision. Diaz lost his title to a prime Jose Luis Castillo in his first title defense in 2005. In 2007, Diaz recaptured the IBF lightweight title in destroying Jesus Chavez by a 3rd round TKO. Unfortunately for Diaz, he lost his IBF title in his first defense against Juan Diaz in October of 2007. From that point, Julio had mixed success in the last 7 years.



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