By Jim Slattengren: Former 2004 Olympic light flyweight Gold Medalist for Cuba Yan Barthelemy (5-0), now fighting as a bantamweight, easily defeated Antonio Maria Cochero Diaz (9-9, 6 KOs) by a six-round unanimous decision on Friday night at the Xtreme Indoor Karting, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The final judges’ scores were 59-53, 59-53 and 59-53. Barthelemy, a southpaw, who defected from Cuba in December 2006 along with fellow Olympic Gold medal teammates Yuriorkis Gamboa and Odlanier Solis, dominated the slower, mostly limited Diaz.
It was never remotely competitive as Barthelemy picked apart Diaz as if he were pulling wings of a fly. Though Barthelemy didn’t get the knockout, his style is more of a technical nature, the complete opposite of the hard-punching Gamboa, who fought earlier on the same card and won an impressive first round KO over American Johnnie Edwards. Barthelemy, however, is more of a counter puncher, using his opponents’ aggression to find openings for his own shots.
Without that, Barthelemy isn’t much of a self-starter in terms of cooking up offense on his own. However, against an attacking opponent, Barthelemy is in his element, making them miss and hitting them with shots from all angles. He previously has two wins over his teammate Gamboa, who was never able to solve his difficult style. Though he doesn’t get as much press as Gamboa, he may in fact be the better overall fighter due to his counter-punching and defensive skills.
As for Friday night’s opponent, Diaz, he had little clue on what to do with Barthelemy early on. The first round was all Barthelemy, as he jabbed, threw hooks to the body and head, and blocked or leaned away from any shots that Diaz attempted. It was like watching a clinic on defensive fighting and the art of counter punching. By the end of the round, Diaz had pretty much stopped punching altogether as he seemed mesmerized by the talent of Barthelemy. When Diaz would attempt to come forward and attack, Barthelemy would either back up, hitting him with hooks as he backed away or stand and slide his torso to move out of range of the punches. It was useless for Diaz to even try, though he didn’t give up.
In the 2nd round, Barthelemy landed a lot of jabs early in the round, mixing in an occasional combination. Diaz, for his part, only attempted three punches during the entire round, all of which were picked off. Near the end of the round, Barthelemy landed a flurry of shots to the head of Diaz. None of them were particularly powerful, but they were blazing fast and especially impressive to look at.
Barthelemy began landing many more combinations in rounds three and four, hitting Diaz with right-left combinations and blasting him with right hooks whenever he would stray in too close. For his part, Diaz only threw a handful of punches in both rounds, mostly focusing on moving his head to get out of the way of Barthelemy’s shots. Without Diaz punching, Barthelemy wasn’t able to do what he does best – land wicked counter shots, thus he was forced to try and create opportunities by coming forward and pushing the fight. It still didn’t get Diaz to let his hands go, though, as he seemed content to just try and last out the fight.
In round five, Diaz was knocked down early in the round by a sneaky right hook by Barthelemy. Following the knockdown, Barthelemy gamely attempted to end the fight with a flurry, but it had little effect on Diaz, who was never hurt to begin, having gone down because he was surprised by the right hand, and didn’t see it coming. Later in the round, Barthelemy was penalized a point by referee Telis Assimenios for holding onto Diaz’s head with his right hand and tagging him with his left hand. It was funny to look at, but obviously quite illegal move on Barthelemy’s part, and he was rightfully docked a point because of it.
In the six round, Barthelemy began to show his boxing skills, as he put both his hands down at his waist and began moving around the ring, throwing blinding jabs and combinations to the head of Diaz, while avoiding all of his best shots. Barthelemy looked like a cross between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Roy Jones Jr. during this round. Very impressive work.