Cristian Ricardo Lucio "El Diamante" Mijares

Just officially pushed his professional boxing career past the "spanning over two decades" mark, using his trademark counter-punching to outbox 25-1 countryman Jesús "Viboro" Arévalo to a unanimous decision over 10 in Campeche on a Sabados de Box on Televisa card. Career bout #68, victory #58. I caught the last couple of rounds and the RBR highlights shown by Televisa. He's still looking pretty sharp for a guy that has no business having this much longevity and executing at this level as high up as super feather.

¡Buen trabajo, campeon!

 

What's even crazier about that is that he seems to have actual pop at 126/130lbs, despite having always had a reputation for being feather-fisted down at super fly and bantam where he spent the bulk of his prime. He isn't scoring a ton of kayos lately - now on a 9-0 (2) run since the loss to Leo Santa Cruz with now five straight twelve-rounder decisions, though he was 7-1 (6) before that since his initial jump up to feather in 2011 (and that should be 8-0 with six kayos, because he was robbed versus Terrazas) - but he is getting the respect of tough opponents, and if you watch the fights he is stinging them with his shots. That's largely execution, which has always been his forte, but he also just seems to be physically stronger up in this range. Which is crazy, because growing into a division is something much younger guys do. You don't expect it of a boxer in the littlest classes in his mid to late thirties. He must be doing something right in the gym, and/or found a strength training program or power-building method that really works for him.

68.

...and yeah, I remember the Mijares fan club got shredded after he lost to Darchinyan, with most of us chased off the forum (and into the outer fringes of the boxing community in general, as if we had some great cause for shame for having thought Mijares was a fantastic and underappreciated talent). It was really weird and hypocritical that so many people acted like Mijares got "exposed" or that it was some hugely embarrassing defeat that undid all his good work - and gave the lie to his (IMO, still very well deserved) p4p ranking at that point in time. I mean, Lewis' image and legacy was tarnished a little by losing to McCall and Rahman, and sure the rabid haters don't ever let the rest of the world forget it, but ultimately he's still by acclamation considered a GREAT. Ditto with Klitscho. His early career stoppage losses are sort of cringe-worthy, but he managed to brush the dirt off his shoulders and keep it moving and still maintain a modicum of respect proportionately due his talents and totality of achievement. Pacquiao, the list goes on. Mijares was scapegoated in a very strange way as being not allowed to recover in the eyes of the boxing public from a HARDLY unforgivable KO loss. I mean, FFS, that crazy-ass dual-sledgehammer-wielding southpaw Armenian-Ozzie was a handful for anyone before he was check-hooked by Donaire.

Mijares' run prior to Darchinyan was remarkable to witness and most casual fans (and even some that styles themselves die-hard) totally missed it. His schooling of Arce was like an even better version of Calzaghe vs. Lacy, which presaged it by a year, which I said back then - and IMO the lollipop cowboy was a better scalp than Left Hook Jeff (which I also said back then, and stand by). Ignore the "SD" results vs. both Muñoz and Navarro - he utterly schooled them both, maybe not to quite the same jaw-dropping extent he did to HBO's then darling hype job Arce, but still they were pure technical boxing clinics and he ought to have pitched near-shutouts, rather than have those misleadingly on his record as "splits".

He took a lot of really decent competition out behind the woodshed and gave them boxing lessons in that period, 2004-2008, and had it been left at that I still think his career for a guy without much natural power was an overwhelming success, and every filmed match of his was basically a paragon of what a coach would hope to be able to show a kid walking into the gym and wondering how the craft ought to look. The fact that he managed to keep going past the stumbling block of not just the Darchinyan loss but the subsequent back to back robberies at the hands of Cermeño (going on to compile a very good record of 32-2 afterwards until this very day, including a world title capture just thirteen months after the Cermeño rematch) and is still doing his thing, passing the eye test, and keeping the focus and discipline to still be in the requisite terrific shape to utilize his style - wow. All you can say is wow. A true Diamond in the rough.

 

He isn't just doing a lazy, drawn-out former champs' retirement lap and beating up on tomato cans, which is the wild part. He's taking on solid domestic opposition and he's fighting in the deep trenches, and he's getting the upper hand on these young, hungry, naturally much bigger dudes, just on skill & will.

 

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Scores were 100-92, 98-92 and 97-93 for El Diamante.

He extends his overall unbeaten streak to nine, and three at super featherweight (now ranked fifth by the WBC, about to be updated to fourth when the new rankings are published next week, edging past the less active NABF champion Tevin Farmer) and his pro career to now two decades & forty-eight days (and counting) since his pro debut on August 20th, 1997...

It would really be something to see him not just land one more big payday with any of the four compatriots ahead of him in the rankings (by the middle of next year when the dust settles, the #1 Mexican at the weight and holder of the green belt will be either Miguel Ángel Berchelt, Orlando Salido, Francisco Vargas or Jhonny González - with Berchelt about to defend versus Salido and Vargas about to compete with González in a mandatory, both expected to be officially announced this month) - and by golly, I actually think he could stand a chance of taming any of the four and maybe, just maybe end up becoming an improbable 4-time and 2-division world champ (with reigns at super fly and super feather - skipping three whole divisions!). My heart would be in my throat and I'd be expecting him to be KTFO by Alacran, Siri, Bandido or El Ratón any moment, but I could see a path to victory for him in all those match-ups. Any of those guys could end up getting Arce'ed, to everybody's shock but mine.

 

The complete fight got removed by the uploading party, but here are the highlights:

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Replied!

 

Cheers!

 

As it turns out, indeed he is overtly gunning for a shot at the WBC title (specifically at super feather), per this article:

https://www.soloboxeo.com/2017/10/08/cristian-mijares-se-enfila-al-titulo-superpluma-del-cmb/

Now this creates a really interesting scenario, in the event that Mijares does pull off this miraculous feat in his métier's twilight hour and upset either Berchelt, Salido, Vargas or González for the storied green belt. As this would make him a 4-time world champ, and make for a serious "ATG comeback" (far more so than, say, Vitali Klitschko's, which did not include a win over anybody the caliber of the aforementioned quartet of hard-hitting Mexicans), and, most importantly, the champ in a higher weight division - he would, I guess, technically be the presumptive A-side in a rematch with current featherweight champ Leo Santa Cruz moving up to challenge him (which you have to figure would be absolutely irresistible to LSC), right? Despite having been nearly shut out by LSC in their last encounter? It would be weird for him to be the a-side but also weird for him not to be. Either way. Just a weird ass situation.

...and I hope one that we have the privilege of scratching our heads over as more than just a hypothetical conundrum.

 

It was actually me and this guy Amsterdam who led the "Mijares is God" express. Amsterdam was a good buddy of Zakman's, and was an early leading member of the "chin-checkers" clique, which may be why you were thinking Zak, they were pretty closely associated. He became something of a pariah (because he was a little one-note in his posting, it was all just either over-the-top Calzaghe worship or the over-the-top but tongue-in-cheek Mijares stuff that we did, and I think I survived the Mijares implosion solely because I was a little more versatile and varied in my opinions and topics chosen to discuss) and slunk away from the forum abruptly not long after Mijares got KTFO, after having been a very active (like CST80-active) poster for a long time.

I actually wish that neither Donaire nor Mijares ever fought Darchinyan, lol. The latter saw pretty much all his prestige go down the flusher unfairly in one night, and the former got ridiculously overrated and literally rode the rail to p4p super-stardom, if you really trace it back, all because of that one check hook.