Juan Diaz vs. Amir Khan: way to the top – THE FACTS!

So Amir Khan is overrated. I don’t say he is, I don’t say he’s not but I see him as a POTENTIAL future superstar with his ‘suspect chin’ as his ONLY weakness. But there this instant anti-Khan rush after every fight he wins (overrated, nobody, Warren’s pet, Warren’s cash cow, opponents paid to lay down, opponents with no punch) and of course the more solid opinions like how Juan Diaz will kick his a**. You know, that’s possible because as we speak the young Diaz is close to the p4p rankings and he’s the World LW Champion, the one we’re speaking about kicking P4P#2-3 Pacquiao’s ass. But Diaz’ way to the top wasn’t easier than Khan’s. Instead – it was very similar in some ways and easier in others.


SO LET’S SEE THE FACTS!


The main arguments in the dozens of topics after every Khan fight are the following:
-Khan is a ***** / a selfish mofo / an overhyped media-made fake star / the tough man of Bolton (sarcasm) etc. – that’s something I won’t comment on a boxing forum
-Khan doesn’t have a chin. That’s probably the strongest one but he still managed to get up from the Limond knockdown to knock the other fighter out himself – what a survival. As Ottke knocked out Mundine (or pick any other serious situations like Pavlik decked in the Zuniga fight) it’s foolish to say that if a guy who has a bad KO record (Ottke, A. Gomez) manages to knock you down you have a glass jaw. Suspect chin – OK, but glass jaw – c’mon! Everybody needs to get his chin tested and Khan’s chin was tested in that fight. But that wasn’t the only great punch Khan was ever caught with so I wouldn’t say that he has a glass jaw. I’d say that it seems he’s got an average chin.

Juan Diaz himself had troubles on his way up to the top as well. He was knocked down against Ubaldo Hernandez in 2001 so badly that he barely win the fight (SD) and started crying right after like a little girl left in Central Park for a winter night. The other knock-down in his career came form the hands of Contreras but guess what, he stood up to finish the fight in style. And he learned from those bad moments and with a grade A. At the age of 21 he was more mature and showed that in the ring. Just as Amir in his last fight.

-His competition is sh*t. Or some more intelligent opinion: it’s so carefully selected (no brawlers or punchers) that he can’t lose despite how bad he fights. Now c’mon! here’s the copy of both guys opposition up to the title challenge or the age of 21.

DIAZ:
2000-06-23 Rafael Ortiz 7-3-0 Merida, Mexico W TKO 1
2000-07-22 Miller Vazquez 0-0-0 Mexico City, Mexico W KO 1
2000-09-02 Juan Carlos Alvarez 1-2-0 Mexicali, Mexico W TKO 1
2000-09-22 Starr Johnson 1-6-0 Houston, USA W TKO 3
2000-11-10 Antonio Young 2-3-2 Las Vegas, USA W TKO 2
2000-12-01 Michael Lucero 6-4-1 Las Vegas, USA W UD 6
2001-01-13 Bradley Jensen 7-1-0 Uncasville, USA W UD 6
2001-03-02 Mahan Washington 13-9-0 Las Vegas, USA W UD 6
2001-05-19 Carlos Horacio Nevarez 8-9-1 Uncasville, USA W KO 1
2001-06-23 John Trigg 5-10-4 Uncasville, USA W UD 6
2001-07-27 Scott Buck 13-10-1 Mt. Pleasant, USA W TKO 1
2001-09-01 Ubaldo Hernandez 15-7-1 El Paso, USA W SD 8
2001-11-10 Rudolfo Lunsford 11-16-2 Houston, USA W UD 4
2002-02-15 Juan Carlos Juarez 10-5-1 Houston, USA W UD 8
2002-04-27 Nelson Ramon Medina 12-21-2 Uncasville, USA W UD 8
2002-07-05 Michael Davis 21-10-0 Laredo, USA W UD 10
2002-08-24 Peter Nieves 15-4-1 Atlantic City, USA W UD 10
2002-10-19 Roy Delgado 10-0-0 Houston, USA W TKO 6
2002-11-22 Arthur Cruz 18-12-3 Atlantic City, USA W TKO 4
2003-02-01 John Bailey 20-9-2 Uncasville, USA W TKO 7
2003-05-10 Eleazar Contreras Jr 19-2-2 Temecula, USA W UD 10
2003-07-19 Francisco Lorenzo 18-1-0 Houston, USA W UD 10
2003-11-22 Joel Perez 34-6-2 Houston, USA W TKO 6
WBC World Youth Lightweight Title
2004-04-17 Martin O'Malley 21-2-1 Temecula, USA W TKO 2

KHAN:
2005-07-16 David Bailey 3-4-0 Bolton, United Kingdom W TKO 1
2005-09-10 Baz Carey 9-13-3 Cardiff, United Kingdom W PTS 4
2005-11-05 Steve Gethin 9-18-2 Glasgow, United Kingdom W TKO 3
2005-12-10 Daniel Thorpe 19-44-2 Dockland, United Kingdom W TKO 2
2006-01-28 Vitali Martynov 9-1-0 Nottingham, United Kingdo W TKO 1
2006-02-25 Jackson Williams 12-3-0 Dockland, United Kingdom W TKO 3
2006-05-20 Laszlo Komjathi 24-10-1 Belfast, United Kingdom W PTS 6
2006-07-08 Colin Bain 9-1-1 Cardiff, United Kingdom W TKO 2
2006-09-02 Ryan Barrett 12-2-1 Bolton, United Kingdom W TKO 1
2006-12-09 Rachid Drilzane 10-3-0 Dockland, United Kingdom W UD 10
2007-02-17 Mohammed Medjadji 17-3-0 Wembley, United Kingdom W TKO 1
2007-04-07 Steffy Bull 24-4-1 Cardiff, United Kingdom W TKO 3
2007-07-14 Willie Limond 28-1-0 Greenwich, United Kingdom W RTD 8
Commonwealth (British Empire) Lightweight Title
2007-10-06 Scott Lawton 20-3-1 Nottingham, United Kingdo W TKO 4
Commonwealth (British Empire) Lightweight Title
2007-12-08 Graham Earl 25-2-0 Bolton, United Kingdom W TKO 1
Commonwealth (British Empire) Lightweight Title
2008-02-02 Gairy St. Clair 39-5-2 Dockland, United Kingdom W UD 12
Commonwealth (British Empire) Lightweight Title

I don’t even say that compare Diaz’s 13-14-15-16th fight to Amir’s because that’s not my point. (But you can compare it anyway – that’s bad for Juan). My point is: LEVEL OF OPPOSITION. C’mon! How many ranked fighters Diaz faced before he fought Sim? 1? 2? Lorenzo and Contreras were good fighters but none of them were world title challengers or something like that. Limond had a good record but it was Earl who was the real step-up – and he’s a brawler who was even able to drop the very tough Katsidis in a WAR so don’t tell me he was nothing or wasn’t there to test Amir’s will, chin and answer to pressure. The thing is: Khan made it so quick that he couldn’t make it a fight. And the guy was an ‘interim world title challenger’ in his previous fight. St. Clair if a former world champion who never lost a fight inside distance and lost his fight against Dorin in LW and Harris in LWW division. So he’s not a nobody from divisions lower. Corrales couldn’t knock him out and everybody lost at least 2 rounds against him – except Khan. If I really have to find rounds to give to St. Clair in Saturday’s fight, probably the 6th was the closest one. You see as Diaz learned from hard lessons Khan learned as well – he was very focused and blew away Earl (who’s already beat this Yuri Romanov who will Khan probably face next and who’s another legitimate challenger and with a good punch.) and he didn’t make ONE serious mistake in his very first 12 rounder so even if the quick St. Clair would've had a 100% KO record he still couldn’t really land clean punches – just a very few.

So look again at Diaz’ record up to his 16th or up to his world title fight or pick your favourite fighter and look at his record of opposition at the age of 21 or in his first 16 fights. Yeah, I know… unless your favourite fighter is called Povetkin or Gamboa...it’s bad. So how come he’s overrated if he’s ALREADY has a better opposition pre-world title try than p4p#11 Juan Diaz?

 

I'd like to see that match-up too, buddy.