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In toe-to-toe fight, Diaz wins in 12 rounds

By Tom Carpenter
The Daily Cougar

In a ferocious slugfest that went the distance, UH-Downtown's Juan Diaz (25-0) wrested the World Boxing Association Lightweight Championship from two-time WBA champion Lakva Sim (19-4-1) of Mongolia at Reliant Arena on Saturday night in a 12-round donnybrook that had the crowd on their feet.

In a unanimous decision, the judges scored the fight 118-110, 116-112, and 118 to 111 for Diaz, 20, making him the youngest WBA champion in the world.

"When they were saying the scores I remembered that this has been my dream since I was eight years old," Diaz said, holding an ice pack against his right jaw. "I was a little fat butterball, a little fat boy; 110 pounds, eight years old. Thinking back to that moment, it was unbelievable."

Wearing baby-blue trunks, Diaz looked like a young innocent standing next to the grizzled veteran Sim, 32, while the referee gave the fighters final instructions in the center of the ring. But when the opening bell rang, it was Diaz who attacked, connecting with a powerful left hook that snapped Sim's head back and let the champion know that his title was under siege.

"That was my main concern all along," said Willie Savannah, Diaz's manager. "I know my little kid is good. I know he's got a lot of heart; but still, he's 20 years old. You can tell on the videos we saw that Sim takes a beating and keeps on coming.

"He looks like he's a pain freak. You can't hurt him," Savannah said. "That's the only thing, you think about the youth. But as far as the skills and the heart, if he'd (Diaz) been 25 years old I wouldn't even (have) thought twice about it."

The champion stalked Diaz around the ring, hurling flurries of punches at the elusive challenger, but Diaz captured the early rounds by battering Sim with a steady barrage of left hooks to the head and explosive rights to the body.

"We had a good strategy," trainer Derwin Richards said. "We concentrated on the fundamentals, boxing. That's the way Sim fights (stalking) and he's a two-time world champion. That's why we had to stick to our game plan; we couldn't follow Sim's. 

The bout vacillated between a brawl and a ballet until the final bell. Diaz danced around Sim's onslaught, firing lightning jabs and potent uppercuts at the champion between savage confrontations in the middle of the ring.

"At the beginning, my trainer was telling me not to get into it with him too much," Diaz said. "But that's my instinct; he hit me one time, and I wanted to go in there and hit him with three or four punches. I think at the end, the good body shots took a toll." 

In a test of iron wills, the power and energy of youth bested the cunning and skill of experience. The intensity in the ring raged as Diaz and Sim fought with no quarter and no mercy. 

"We go to the gym and it's blood, sweat and tears every day," said Brian Caldwell, Diaz's strength and conditioning coach. "I had a lot of confidence that Juan could go all 12 and all 12 hard. And he did. We put a lot of heart into it because he's kind of like our little brother. To see him win is just exciting for us. There's nobody more deserving than Juan. He's got a tremendous heart." 

Diaz shunned away from taking the credit for his win.

"There's a lot of great people who made this happen," Diaz said. "My manager Willie Savannah, my trainers Ronnie Shields, Derwin Richards and Brian Caldwell -- they've been with me since I was a little boy. They never gave up on me."

In spite of an ugly purple welt covering his left temple and cheek, Diaz laughed about his future.

"All I know is that I want to fight the best fighters out there," Diaz said. "I proved myself tonight, and I feel that I've got the strength and conditioning to fight against any lightweight in the world.

"I'm going to start celebrating tonight. My uncle got married today, and I'm going to his wedding as the new WBA champion," Diaz continued. "And I've got to sign up for classes Tuesday."
 

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