By Jason Kim: Former WBC light heavyweight champion Adrian Diaconu (27-3, 15 KO’s) is reportedly retiring from boxing according to fightnews.com. However, when a fighter retires from the sport nowadays, it’s often little more than a short vacation so they can recharge their batteries before getting back in the ring. Hopefully, that’ll be the case with the 33-year-old Diaconu.

Diaconu has lost three out of his last four fights, albeit to top quality fighters in Jean Pascal [twice] and Chad Dawson. He gave both fighters all they could handle and there’s no shame in losing to guys that like. What Diaconu lacked was height. At only 5’9″, he was at disadvantage against the much taller light heavyweights. Even with his big power, trying to make up for his lack of size was a real problem for him when he stepped up against better fighters in the division. Besides a lack of size, Diaconu also lacked hand speed, and that made it tough on him when he faced Dawson and Pascal, two of the faster fighters in the 175 pound division.

Diaconu’s best wins came against Chris Henry and Andre Thysse. He was good against stationary fighters that were there for him to hit. Diaconu was nearly unbeatable against fighters that tried to slug with him, because that was what his game was all about.

It would have been interesting to have seen what Diaconu could have done at 168 of 160, where his lack of height wouldn’t be quite so pronounced. It’s too bad he didn’t move down in weight to try his hand at 160 or 168, because he might have done a lot better.

It’s hard to imagine Diaconu retiring now because he’s still a very good fighter and would likely get title shots in the future just by sticking around.