McCloskey-Diaz on May 5th

By Boxing News - 02/23/2012 - Comments

Image: McCloskey-Diaz on May 5thBy Scott Gilfoid: Irish light welterweight contender Paul McCloskey (23-1, 12 KO’s) will finally be getting back in the ring on May 5th against two-time former IBF lightweight champion Julio Diaz (38-7, 27 KO’s( at the Kings Hall in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

McCloskey, 32, hardly capitalized on beating Breidis Prescott by a 12 round unanimous decision in the WBA light welterweight title eliminator bout last September. Not only did McCloskey not get a title shot out of that fight, but he also seems to have scared off a lot of potential opponents due to the controversy over his decision against Prescott.

McCloskey may have beaten Prescott on paper, but few fans agreed with the decision, seeing Prescott as the guy that should have won the fight. After that kind of win, getting top fighters to come to Belfast hasn’t exactly been easy and risk finding themselves on the opposite end of a hometown decision. I guess Diaz, 32, is willing to take the risk, but then again Diaz doses have much to lose in that he’s not longer a top tier ranked fighter and has lost three out of his last five fights, so if he gets jobbed like Prescott did then it hardly matters.

Diaz has got nothing to lose. But McCloskey can’t win another fight like that last one and still be respected because it just looks bad when you get dominated the way that McCloskey did by Prescott and then get a decision out of it. I saw the McCloskey-Prescott fight several times and all I could give McCloskey was one round. He did nothing in the first half of the fight and then came on a little at the end but most missed and took jabs to the head. He was the aggressor but the effective aggressor because he kept missing and eating jabs. It was was one of the worst scored fights I’ve ever seen before and McCloskey really looked bad in that fight.

Diaz could beat McCloskey. I mean he’s got the skills to do it, but I don’t think they’ve give him a decision. So if Diaz appears to win every round, I see him ultimately still losing the fight by a couple of rounds. No way will he get a decision over McCloskey in Belfast. That’s not going to happen.



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