Mastery never gets old: Marquez starches Diaz in nine

HOUSTON – Wow. Just when he had become too old, too spent and too easily imposed upon, Mexico City’s Juan Manuel Marquez summoned the remains of his exceptional class, in defiance of his empty legs, and stopped Houstonian Juan Diaz in one of the most unexpected knockouts in years.

Unexpected because of the way the fight started Saturday, not because of who Marquez is. Before the match, experts all agreed that Marquez’s skills were unmatched. But he looked every bit of his 35 years early – while Diaz looked younger than 25. And then, in an instant, Marquez had cut Diaz, staggered him, dropped him and changed the fight altogether.

“When I got the first knockdown,” Marquez said afterwards, “I knew I had to go after him with everything I had.”

At 2:40 of the ninth, a round that – early on – it appeared Marquez might not survive till, Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) dropped Diaz (34-2, 17 KOs) with a right uppercut from which the young American had no chance of recovery. The count was unnecessary, and the fight was stopped before Diaz even tried to raise himself.

It was perhaps the proudest effort of Marquez’s exceptional career. It was also an effort that definitively vaulted Marquez over the other Mexican legends of his generation. Great as they were, neither Marco Antonio Barrera nor Erik Morales could, or did, master a young challenger of Diaz’s class in the twilight of their careers.

Appropriately, impatience with others’ appraisal of him has marked much of Marquez’s career. And a sort of impatience also marked his future plans after he beat Diaz:

“If Floyd Mayweather is the best, then I want to fight the best,” Marquez said, notably skipping the prospect of a rubber match with the world’s current pound-for-pound champ, Manny Pacquiao.

CHRIS JOHN VS. ROCKY JUAREZ
Saturday’s co-main event saw boxing’s perennial second-place finisher come up just shy once more when Houston’s Rocky Juarez (28-4-1, 20 KOs) put in a workmanlike and entertaining effort against Indonesian WBA featherweight champion Chris John (42-0-2, 22 KOs) but was unable to win his first world title, finishing with a draw that all three judges scored 114-114. John retained his belt.

The fight was a good but not great one. To date it was Juarez’s best showing in a world title match since his close and controversial loss to Marco Antonio Barrera in May of 2006. Juarez worked well behind a double and triple jab and hit John with the harder blows throughout. But John was tough as hell, giving away nothing and routinely rebounding from Juarez’s jolting left hooks by shoving the Houstonian away and boxing him adroitly.

It was a fight that could easily have been scored for Juarez, and the 15rounds.com ringside scorecard, along with the scorecards of most of the ringside press, had Juarez winning by a slim margin. As it turned out on the official cards, though, Juarez needed to win both of the championship rounds, on all three scorecards, to pull out a draw.

After winning most of the early rounds and being cut in the fifth, Juarez slowed considerably. He conceded as much after the fight, admitting he’d stalled at the midway point.

“I gave up some of the middle rounds,” Juarez said. “But it was a good show.”

Then Juarez made what might someday be considered a deft analogy for a career of so many narrowly squandered world title chances: “The rounds go by so fast, and you don’t realize the fight’s almost over.”

UNDERCARD
The night’s final undercard bout saw undefeated Philadelphia welterweight Danny Garcia (11-0, 7 KOs) easily and uneventfully decision Mexican journeyman Cristian Favela (15-18-6, 9 KOs) by unanimous-decision scores of 80-72, 80-72 and 79-73. Despite winning most every minute, Favela looked merely common throughout, closing the show to a chorus of lusty boos from the Toyota Center crowd.

An undercard of mismatches reached a climax in its penultimate fight when New York’s Daniel “The Golden Child” Jacobs (14-0, 13 KOs) went directly through overmatched Mexican super middleweight Jose Cruz (12-16-3, 4 KOs) in less than a round. Throwing tight, well-placed combinations, Jacobs wasted no time on the softer-looking Cruz, stopping him at 2:59 of the first. Good as he is, Jacobs might be better served by stiffer opponents – closer to his home on the east coast – than the likes of Cruz in the Central time zone.

The undercard’s finest display of skill came from lightweight Houston prospect Hylon Williams (8-0, 3 KOs) who outworked and wore-down Midland, Tex.’s Edgar Portillo (3-1, 2 KOs) over the course of 15 minutes, forcing Portillo’s corner to stop the match before the opening bell of Round 6. Throwing well-leveraged left hooks like fellow Houstonian – and main event attraction – Juan Diaz, Williams fought inside, outside and always effectively en route to the third stoppage victory of his career.

After three lopsided matches Saturday, a good fight broke out in the night’s fourth. Although junior middleweight Houstonian Jermell Charlo (6-0, 3 KOs) won every round on all three judges’ scorecards, fellow Texan Juan Serrano (2-5-1, 2 KOs) made a scrap of it after a shaky start. Once Serrano began to walk through his quick jab, Charlo settled down on his punches – in the process taking more punches than he should have – and won 40-36, 40-36, 40-36.

At the halfway point of Saturday’s undercard, fights were starting to have trouble finishing a full round. Californian Ramon Flores’ (3-4-1, 3 KOs) massive overhand right did nothing to fix that. Flores, clearly the underdog against Dallas lightweight Hector Vasquez (1-1, 1 KO), lost much of the first round before bringing a decisive end to the matter with his right fist. Though the obviously shocked Vasquez beat the count, he was too wobbly to continue and the fight was waved off.

The afternoon’s second bout saw little action but superior proficiency from New York junior middleweight Michael Anderson (4-0-1, 2 KOs) who made quick work of Houston’s Oscar Rosales (4-4-1, 1 KO), stopping him at 1:00 of Round 1. After dropping him in the fight’s opening seconds, Anderson closed the show with a crisp right cross/left hook combo that made the ref stop the bout.

With doors scheduled to open at 5:30 local time Saturday afternoon, Toyota Center was only sparsely populated when local lightweight Darryl Hayes (1-0) made his professional debut against another Houstonian, Gerardo Carillo (0-4-1), decisioning him convincingly by unanimous scores of 40-36, 40-36 and 39-37.

15rounds.com will have full post-fight coverage on Monday.