I don’t get it. I honestly don’t see how any impartial arbiter could see Michael “The Great” Katsidis as the victor over Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz Saturday night. Yet Glen Hamada of Washington State did just that before 15,000 partisan fans at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, giving the Australian a 115-113 nod in the fight, broadcast on HBO’s Boxing After Dark. The only possible justification for believing that Katsidis won seven rounds in that fight is that Hamada was distracted by the babe sitting next to Mario Lopez, seated a couple of rows behind him.
It was, for the Houstonite Diaz, sort of the home field advantage in reverse.
Fortunately judges Levi Martinez of New Mexico, who saw it 115-113 Diaz, and Gale Van Hoy of Texas, who gave Diaz a 116-112 advantage, provided enough of a consensus to give Diaz the victory and the lightly regarded IBO lightweight belt. But even these gentlemen saw a different fight than I did.
For those with inquiring minds, I scored it 118-110 for Diaz, as did HBO’s Harold Lederman.
Diaz, 34-1 (17), rebounding from his shocking loss of three belts to Nate Campbell last March looked sharp and well prepared by trainer Ronnie Shields. In the first half of the fight he simply outclassed Katsidis, 23-2 (20), using a sharp jab, brilliant combinations, and clever footwork to create angles.
By comparison Katsidis simply appeared to be unskilled labor.
The Aussie did give his all to stage a comeback in the second half of the fight as Diaz appeared to tire just a bit. Referee Laurence Cole did all he legitimately could for the Diaz cause, halting the bout three times in the final four rounds to cut a minimal strip of tape from the fighter’s gloves. I’m sure it came in handy but it appeared to be a luxury that really wasn’t required.
Diaz’ work spoke for itself. By the end of the fight Katsidis’ right eye was virtually closed, swollen and black and blue. Cut around both eyes and chin, he looked as if he was attacked by an ice pick and mallet. Meanwhile Diaz looked like a milk fed quarterback.
One person obviously felt that the Aussie was in control of the fight. Katsidis’ trainer, Brendon Smith, was remarkably complimentary to his fighter between rounds down the stretch:
Round Seven– “Everything’s good.”
Round Eight– “Keep doing exactly what you’re doing.”
Round Nine– “It’s Lovely. You’re showing a beautiful display, something I haven’t seen in a long, long time.”
Round Ten– “You’re doing terrific.”
Round Eleven–”You’re doing beautiful.”
Katsidis should be credited for heart and perseverance and actually I gained respect for him in defeat. But even the CompuBox stats point to a landslide Diaz victory. Diaz was 296 of 801 punches thrown, 37%, compared to 149 of 868 for Katsidis, a lowly 17%.
After the fight and perhaps with his point of view bolstered by the judges’ scores, Smith, who had remained so cool and calm throughout the fight, became feistier.
When HBO analyst Max Kellerman told Katsidis and Smith that the announcing team had seen it as a lopsided decision for Diaz, Smith retorted, “That’s why you guys are commentators and that’s why the first judge got it right.”
Max’s jaw tightened but he held his tongue. Soon after that, when Max admonished the crowd about booing Katsidis, he was booed himself, in fact a bit louder.
In his final comments, Kellerman blistered the judges, going so far as to say that it was difficult not to suspect a corrupting influence, saying that it was one of the worst jobs of scoring that he had ever seen.
As the saying goes, my idea of an agreeable man is a man who agrees with me. So I’m finding Max Kellerman quite agreeable this week, at least as far as the main event goes.
That aside, after the co feature Max suggested that there was some home cooking in the judge’s scoring prior to Rocky Juarez, 28-4 (20), winning by a gory stoppage over Argentine Jorge Barrios, 47-4-1 (34), in a 130 pound fight for something called the WBO Latino title.
After 10 rounds of scoring the judges had it 96-92 and 95-93 for Juarez, with one card 94-94, my score at the time. Referee Rafael Ramos took points from Barrios for low blows in the third and the ninth, on punches that appeared to be on the belt line.
As Lennox Lewis so eloquently observed after the first deduction as only he could, “I wouldn’t have tooken that point.”
The problem is that judges have to score what the ref gives them, home cooking or not. Yet the HBO announcing team cut them no slack at all, suggesting that they needed eye glasses.
Barrios suffered a bruised and swollen right eye as early as round two, but Juarez, as he is prone to do, was highly economical with his punches, costing him some rounds.
On the other hand, a considerable amount of work that Barrios was doing might have looked good but was meaningless. He threw 160 punches in round 10, but only 27 landed so big deal. For the fight Barrios threw 1006 punches, landing 162, and was 117 of 623 in power punches. Juarez was 126 of 476 total punches thrown and landed 77 of 207 power punches.
You can see why it might appear that Barrios was dominating the fight, but his lack of accuracy cost him, as I see it. Juarez has the naturally better power of the two. For him it was a matter of throwing more.
In any event the scoring didn’t matter in the end. In the final round Rocky opened up his offense with solid hooks and right hands. Soon Barrios was bleeding profusely from the mouth while eating solid leather to the head and body. With 17 seconds remaining in round 11, a Juarez right hand sent Barrios to the canvas. He rose, with blood spurting out of the right side of his mouth like water from Jethro’s Pump.
Barrios is definitely going to be on a soup diet for a while but there was no other home cooking about Rocky’s victory. That bloody TKO was about as definitive as it gets. And, given Ramos’ point deductions, the scoring was that not far out of line either.
Personally, I simply don’t believe that any perceived perks received by Rocky in his victory could possibly outweigh that god-awful, train wreck scoring in Diaz-Katsidis. That would only be considered home cooking in the Bizarro world.
And just think, by Saturday this will all be a forgotten matter as the discussion will be about Diaz’ facing either Joel Casamayor or Juan Manuel Marquez for the Ring Magazine title.