Juan Diaz Looks Like a Shot Fighter

By Boxing News - 08/25/2009 - Comments

By Eric Thomas: Never-mind that Juan Diaz (35-2, 17 KO’s) was given what many boxing fans consider to be a gift decision by the hometown judges over visiting Paulie Malingaggi last Saturday night, in Houston, Texas. What really concerns me is how shot Diaz looked as a fighter.

Diaz looks nothing like the fighter that defeated Fernando Angulo, Acelino Freitas and Julio Diaz. Those victories made it look as if Juan Diaz would continue on for a long time to come, but grueling losses to Nate Campbell and Juan Manuel Marquez seems to have taken something out of Diaz, making him much more vulnerable than he was before. On Saturday night.

Diaz had everything in his favor, home advantages, the judges, and a small 18 foot ring, yet Diaz still was needed the judges to give him a decision that many people, this writer included, felt that Diaz didn’t deserve. Given how poorly that Diaz fought through much of the fight, I think it’s time that he starts considering hanging up the gloves for good.

Malignaggi isn’t the best fighter in the light welterweight division and probably not even close to it. If Diaz needs a lot of factors in his favor for him to get decisions over a fighter like Malignaggi, I really don’t like Diaz’s chances in the future against better fighters than Malignaggi in the light welterweight division.

I imagine that Diaz may consider moving back down to lightweight after this fight or possibly in the future, because he might think that will give him a better chance at competing at a high level. However, I don’t think Diaz will do much better at lightweight than he will at light welterweight. In the lightweight division, Diaz will still have to fight top fighters like Edwin Valero, Marquez and Ali Funeka. Diaz would likely lose to all of them.

The only advantage Diaz has is his age. At 25, he could possibly outlast Marquez, who will be retiring in the not too distance future. However, the other fighters are still quite young and Diaz won’t be able to wait them out. And at this point, I’m have serious doubts whether he can defeat lightweights like Joan Guzman, Antonio DeMarco, Paulus Moses, Joel Casamayor and Anthony Peterson.

If Diaz is just looking for a big payday against Marquez, then I have no problems with that. However, if Diaz is thinking about fighting for a long time to come, I see a lot of losses in the future for him, because he doesn’t look like he’s the same fighter physically.

At light welterweight, Diaz is going to be ripped apart by sluggers like Marcos Maidana, Victor Ortiz, Kendall Holt and Mike Alvarado. It won’t take the champions to beat Diaz down; It’ll just take the contenders to drive Diaz out of the division.

Hopefully, Diaz gets the hint sooner rather than later and figures out that he doesn’t have it anymore before he really starts to take bad beatings. If this had been a slugger on Saturday night instead of Malignaggi, Diaz would have needed to be picked up off the canvas by a large spatula. And all the judges and screaming crowds in the arena wouldn’t have made one bit of difference for Diaz. He would have been knocked out as clear as day.



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