Juan Diaz stops Julio Diaz: What lies ahead for the Babybull?

Hello boxing fans. I would like to apologize for my hiatus from this page. I've wanted to update it for the longest time, but better late than never!

Alright, lets get right to it. This past weekend at the Sears Centre in Chicago, in the hometown of the third Diaz, David, WBA/WBO Lightweight Champion Juan Diaz dominated and stopped defending IBF Lightweight Champion Julio Diaz in nine rounds. As you might've seen about a month, I posted an update regarding the Diaz Trifecta. As Larry Merchant commented with his usual charm - or cheese - the Lightweight Division has become the Diaz division.

Juan Diaz is fun to watch and I think you know why. He lets his hands go! The man throws six to eight punch combinations at a time and he is not exactly slow when he does so. Those are fast combinations and about 50% of those shots are usually landing on his opponents. Much like the fight with Freitas this past April, Julio pretty much quit when he realized he was not going to win the fight. Juan's head was in his chest practically the whole night and Julio had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and nowhere to create space to box circles around Juan.

In fact, at certain points throughout the fight, it was Juan who was circling Julio! He would throw those rapid fire combinations at Julio and, instead of staying in one spot and giving Julio a chance to move around him and escape the barrages, Juan would circle Julio and continue to tattoo his opponent. It was a brilliant and eye catching performance on the part of Juan Diaz. Give the kid his due, ladies and gentlemen. He's undefeated. He's 33-0. He has three of the four major titles.

After the fight, when Larry Merchant asked him who he wanted to face, Juan stated that would he love to face Manny Pacquiao who had just defeated Barrera and sent him into retirement. Juan proceeded to say that Pacquiao had been beating old Mexican warriors and was time to step up to the plate and face a young Mexican fighter. Will Pacquiao move up to 135lbs for a fight with Juan Diaz? Pacquiao expressed an interest in moving up to the lightweight division after the Barrera fight, but the move has not looked as probable in recent days. Diaz is probably a bad fight for Pacquiao at 135lbs because Diaz is naturally bigger and stronger and throws a lot of punches himself. He throws fast combinations. As a result of that, I'm not sure how well the Pacman would do.

I for one would love to see Diaz fight the Interim WBO Champion Michael Katsidis. Like Diaz, Katsidis brings it to his opponent when the bell rings. He's a tough undefeated kid who has a really physical crowdpleasing style and he lets his hands go the way Diaz lets his go. This fight would be a war of wills between two young undefeated lightweights. I would love to see this fight happen. Katsidis is prone to bruising to being cut up by punches, so that's something that he'd have to be careful and worried about with a guy like Diaz. Diaz busts his opponents up, and when you get a guy who bruises as easily as Katsidis has in the past, it could make Diaz job easier than the action in a fight of that nature might lead you to believe if the referee chooses to stop the contest on cuts.

There's also the legitimate World Lightweight Champion Joel Casamayor (who holds the WBC belt). Ironically, Diaz made no mention of Casamayor, but it's easy to see why he'd prefer a fight Pacquiao. Millions of dollars and worldwide exposure immediately come to mind when I think of why that'd be his FIRST choice. Casamayor is not nearly as marketable and he doesn't command nearly as much money as Pacquiao does. While he's still the champion at 135lbs, Casamayor hasn't fought in over a year and he's never headlined a PPV show.

I would have to say that Casamayor is still the Lightweight Champion of the World, but in my eyes and mind, Juan Diaz is the best lightweight in the world as well as the guy who dethrone the champion if he opts to face him. Casamayor's no spring chicken; all it takes sometimes is a hungry young babybull on the rise - a bull who throws punches in bunches and doesn't get tired - to defeat an older inactive champion on the way down.