Juarez wins in thrilling fashion in the co-feature

By: Christopher Roche

Boxing is the only sport where one loss moves a participant into “comeback” mode, but young Juan Diaz did just that last night.

In front of a raucous crowd in Houston, TX, Diaz circled, jabbed and gutted his way to a split-decision victory over Michael Katsidis. Most importantly for Diaz, he put his loss to Nate Campbell behind him.

Diaz, of Houston, raised a lot of eyebrows when he agreed to take on the tough Australian, Katsidis, but Diaz silenced his naysayers. The tough Texan, who holds dual citizenship (Mexico), wanted to make his debut with Golden Boy Promotions worthwhile.

On paper, the bout looked to be a fight of the year candidate, but it fell far short of that, and the only drama was in the scoring. The HBO crew scored the bout as a near shutout for Diaz, but Glen Hamada gave the bout to Katsidis, 115-113. The other two judges had it 115-113 and 116-112 for Diaz. After the bout, Max Kellerman accused the judges of corruption, but when all three judges have such similar scores, it is more likely that Kellerman’s scoring was incorrect.

With the win, Diaz, 24, moves to 34-1, 17 KO’s, and the bright college student begins an internship tomorrow with a Senator. The 28 year-old Katsidis suffers his second straight loss as he drops to 23-2, 20 KO’s. Diaz picked up the IBO Lightweight belt.

Co-Feature

Rocky Juarez looked to be falling behind Jorge Barrios early, but in the eleventh round, the tentative Juarez exploded.

Juarez unloaded on a tiring Barrios, and he dropped Barrios near the end of the round. Barrios got back up, but he was spurting blood from the mouth. The Doctor stopped the fight. Juarez, 28, moves to 28-4, 20 KO’s. The 32 year-old Barrios, of Buenos Aires, falls to 47-4-1, 34 KOs. The bout was contested in the junior lightweight division.