Martin Gethin vs. Ammeth Diaz preview

By Boxing News - 05/31/2013 - Comments

By Peter Wells (twitter- @boxingpeter): After tests aplenty, Walsall’s Martin Gethin is one fight away from completing a quite amazing turn around in his career. In a once in a lifetime IBF Lightweight title eliminator Gethin will take on experienced Panamanian Ammeth Diaz in front of his home crowd at Walsall Town Hall. For the winner there is a shot at Lightweights Number 1 in the world, Miguel Vazquez – I say number 1 because Adrien Broner for now is fighting for a Welterweight title and I personally rate Vazquez above Ricky Burns. One fighter has knockout power, while the other has a granite chin and the ability to wear his opponents into submission.

For Diaz, a shot at Vazquez would be his second shot at the Lightweight champion after Vazquez dominated over 12 rounds. With just one fight since that January 2012 bout, Diaz has not fought in 8 months. Although Diaz has been stopped 7 times in 11 defeats against 31 wins, you have to take into account the opponents he has faced. Ji-Hoon Kim who stopped Diaz in a round was rated in the top ten for several years until very recently, and two of his other conquerors Souleymane M’Baye and Joan Guzman have both contested in several world title bouts. So with 22 knockouts of his own, Diaz has proved to be a fighter that knocks his opponent out or gets stopped himself. A combination which suggests on Friday night anything can happen.

As for Gethin, he started out as an unknown prospect, until he was stopped in 9 rounds against Scott Lawton. That was followed by a points reverse in a close contest with John Watson before losing a third in a row to journeyman Chris Long. Suddenly Martin’s career was in jeopardy. But after picking himself back up in 2010, Gethin has roared back and gone above and beyond what anyone could have expected of the fighter they call “The Quiet Man”. A shot at the IBF International title is what has earned him an elimination shot. In that fight he fought back from behind to stop the tough and hard hitting Carl Johanneson in the 11th round. Gethin followed that up by winning the Vacant British title in his backyard against another tough banger in Ben Murphy. This time Martin got the job done in 9 rounds.

In a tightly contested contest, the pick is for Gethin to edge his way into the fight after surviving some very scary early moments. Diaz will start to fade as the fight goes on and Martin can use the crowd to drag him over the line and win a close maybe split decision. From a personal standpoint I cannot wait for this fight, of which I will be attending being from Walsall myself, and I hope the rest of the UK gets behind Gethin tomorrow night.

As for the undercard, there are a wide range of fighters, but the main attraction of the 9 undercard fight is Walsall Cruiserweight Chris Keane’s fight with Neil Dawson, who is fresh of a points defeat in the first round of the most recent Prizefighter two weeks ago. Both fighters have a very good punch, but it is unlikely Dawson can repeat the trick he pulled against Tony Conquest last year. So the pick is for Keane to score a stoppage in the second half of the 10 rounder.



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