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Sports

UH-Downtown student Juan Diaz retains lightweight title at Reliant

Pre-law student successfully defends his belt by TKO in a fight dominated by the 'Baby Bull'

Cougar Sports Services

Junior political science major at UH-Downtown and World Boxing Association Lightweight Champion Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz successfully defended his title for the third time on Friday at the sold-out Reliant Center against Billy "The Kid" Irwin in front of 3,300 people. Diaz's record now stands at 27-0 with 13 knockouts.

Few would dispute that Diaz (21) was in control from the moment the fight started until the announcement of Diaz's TKO in the ninth round. His aggressive manner of fighting seemed too much for Irwin who started every round in the center but seemed to be constantly cornered by the "Baby Bull."

"He fought a good fight," Willie Savannah, Diaz's manager said to the Houston Chronicle. "He got a little impatient (and) wanted to knock the guy out."

"He fights hard, and he wants to knock out everybody. But if you noticed, soon as we started to hold back on him a little bit, make him get on the jab, you could see what a beautiful boxer he is."

Diaz, the youngest reigning world champ, used a barrage of jabs in the center of the ring to corner Irwin. In the corner, Diaz attacked Irwin's midsection and used his signature left hook or hard right crosses to the head.

Diaz managed to send Irwin to the canvas with a couple of hard right crosses early in the fight in the second round giving the "The Kid" a three-second window to rethink his strategy against the "Baby Bull."

Diaz connected 33 percent of his 732 punches that night while Irwin connected 21 percent of his 492 punches. 

"I couldn't counter his punches," Irwin said to the Chronicle. "I've been sick with the flu since last week. Everything was so perfect in training until I got sick. People always think you're making excuses when you say you're sick, but that's not the case."

Diaz said he was impressed with how much punishment Irwin took before the referee called the fight.

"A lot of guys couldn't have taken that many punches," he said to the Chronicle. "I'd have to rate him as one of the toughest guys I've faced. ... He made me work tonight."

Houston Astros pitcher Roger Clemens was in the crowd and sat briefly as a color commentator and congratulated the UHD undergrad. 

"He said what a great fight I did," Diaz told the Chronicle. "I was surprised when I saw him in the locker room (before the fight). I said, ‘Man, I think I'm getting famous.'"

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