Juan Diaz vs. Michael Katsidis Preview
Published September 1, 2008 by Martin Bean
By Tom Stretton.
On Saturday the 6th of September at the Toyota Center in Houston Texas, lightweights Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz and Michael "The Great" Katsidis will go head to head for the vacant IBO lightweight title.
Diaz goes into the fight as the clear betting favourite with Ladbrokes offering the best price of 1/4 for him to take the win and Bet 365 offering 3/1 for a Katsidis victory. Ladbrokes are also offering even money for the fight to go the full 12 rounds which may not be bad value for money when you consider that 50% of Diaz's fights have gone the distance.
It will be the first time that the Toyota Center has hosted a boxing event and the former WBA, WBO and IBF champion Diaz who lost his titles on a close split decision last time out against Nate Campbell in March, will have the hometown advantage.
Katsidis also goes into the fight off the back of his only defeat after he was stopped in the tenth round by Joel Casamayor in an exciting fight that went one way then the other and eventually resulted in "The Great" losing his WBO interim title.
In 2000 Diaz thought he had qualified for the Mexican Olympic team but when he was informed he would not be in Sydney because he was not old enough, he decided to turn Pro. He made his debut in the Professional ranks on June 23rd that year and scored a first round TKO over Rafael Ortiz when he was just 16. On July 17th 2004 he won the WBA lightweight title against Mongolian Lakva Sim and went on to defend the title 7 times including a defence against Jose Miguel Cotto (brother of Miguel) and unified the WBO and WBA titles with a TKO victory over Acelino Freitas. Finally on the 13th October 2007 he added the IBF title with a ninth round TKO victory over Julio Diaz. It was a great performance by the "Baby Bull" and when he lost his next bout to Nate Campbell many boxing experts were shocked.
Katsidis on the other hand went to the Sydney Olympics and made the quarter finals representing Australia at lightweight. He remained in the amateurs for a while after the Olympics but finally made his Pro debut on 1st December 2001 aged 21 with a 3rd round KO over Danny Wilson. He won the Australian lightweight title in just his second pro fight with a UD victory over James Swan. In his 22nd pro bout he fought Englands Graham Earl for the WBO Interim lightweight title and Earls corner waved the fight off between the 5th and 6th rounds due to a cut on his left eye. It was a fight in which Katsidis was hurt to the point that referee Mickey Vann gave a standing eight-count in the second round but Katsidis came back to re-establish control of the fight. He made one successful defence of his Interim title before facing Casamayor in march this year.
The fight between Diaz and Katsidis promises to be an interesting matchup and despite Katsidis being the older of the two at 28, the edge in experience must go to the 24 year old Diaz having boxed 227 rounds to Katsidis' 113 in the professional circuit and having much more world title fight experience.
To write Katsidis off though would be a mistake, in his 23 wins he has won 20 by KO. The problem is that he tends to leave himself quite open and as he has shown against Graham Earl and Joel Casamayor he can be hurt. Michael is sometimes nicknamed "Rocky" due to his exciting fighting nature and it is expected to be no different when he steps in the ring against Diaz come September 6th.
The bill "HOUSTON SUPER FIGHT NIGHT" is being presented by Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions and is part of a big co-main event along with the Rocky Juarez v Jorge Rodrigo Barrios fight and tickets range from $25 to $200.
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