Toyota Middle, Houston, Texas – February twenty eighth 2009.
The struggle was dubbed: “A Battle for the Ages. A Struggle for Supremacy.” And 135-pounders Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz served up a modern-day traditional. These two warriors, each expert in addition to able to being ferocious, met in a Mexico vs. Mexico showdown, and the end result was electrical.
Marquez of Mexico Metropolis, the older man by a full decade at age 35, was 49-4-1(36) and the reigning Ring Journal light-weight champion. Diaz of Houston, Texas, was 34-1(17), and he was a former unified light-weight champion (WBA/WBO/IBF). Combating for the vacant WBA and WBO belts, Marquez and Diaz gave us The 2009 Struggle of the 12 months.
The opening spherical was sensational, proper up there with one thing out of that different Mexican traditional, Barrera Vs. Morales. The motion was frenetic, with each males prepared to face and commerce. The velocity with which each males have been launching photographs left followers in a frenzy. Jim Lampley, calling the struggle for HBO, remarked how the opening spherical had been “all-out warfare.”
Spherical two was just about extra of the identical. Diaz, relentless, actually examined Marquez’s chin. Marquez, the extra seasoned fighter, responded in form. Each males bled in there; each males needed to dig enormously deep, and neither man was prepared to offer an inch. Marquez, usually a fantastic defensive fighter in addition to an excellent counterpuncher, appeared near being overwhelmed every now and then.
Diaz was letting go together with vicious hooks, and Marquez was getting house with hurtful uppercuts. However who would come out on high – “Dinamita” or “The Child Bull?”
The tempo by no means as soon as slowed. Marquez’s higher accuracy paid dividends within the eighth when he wobbled Diaz with a left hook close to the tip of what was one more torrid session. Marquez, a genuinely nice fighter, scored a knockdown within the ninth when he landed a harmful mixture to the top. Diaz acquired up, however he was quickly blasted once more, this time by a crippling proper uppercut to the chin that left the bloodies and dazed Diaz on his again.
It was over. One of many best motion fights ever seen within the 135-pound division, Marquez KO9 Diaz gave us all that’s particular about boxing. With quite a few rounds being Spherical of the 12 months materials and with the ending being a KO of the 12 months candidate, this struggle cried for an element II. This duly got here in July of the next yr, with Marquez successful a far much less thrilling encounter on factors.
It was, although, the struggle from 15 years in the past as we speak that really elevated each Marquez and Diaz.
