Knockout (Thammanoon Niyomtrong) vs. Alexis Diaz, July 2nd

Thursday on Ch3 in Thailand, interim WBA straw champ & wunderkind Knockout will make his 2nd defense against the dangerous Alexis Diaz of Venezuela. Barring a couple of FS1 cards (on Tuesday & Thursday evening) and Pedro Guevara's 2nd defense of his WBC light flyweight title against Ganigan Lopez on Televisa Saturday night, this constitutes the only significant action of the week.

This is an encouraging turn, as KO's 1st defense was a fairly underwhelming 12-round drubbing of the ancient Muhammad Rachman (who mysteriously entered the rankings, having been long absent from them, just weeks before his challenge was announced). Diaz is more of a logical progression from Nicaraguan ex-champ Buitrago, on whom KO made his bones last October. As opposed to Rachman, the #4 WBA ranking for Diaz has been earned feasting on a steady diet of C+/B- level opponents (such as Jorle Estrada) and dominating them.

Diaz lacks a signature victory but is coming off his career best, wiping out Luis De La Rosa in under three minutes. LDLR was coming off a ten-round decision loss to Zou Shiming.

Fireworks are pretty much guaranteed. :bbb

 

Make that Ch7, @ 2pm local time in Thailand. (3am EST, 8am UK)

 

Two days later get Pedro Guevara vs. Ganigan Lopez, and what I'd love to see is the winner of the straw contest moving up to challenge the winner at light fly (because let's face it, Knockout and Diaz are both young guys and solid-framed, unlikely to stay at straw)

 

:good

 

This is the next big action of the week, now that Shabranskyy vs. Parker is over.

 

"Hard clean punches that may or may not result in a Knockout" CP Freshmart.

 

For guys who rehydrate to about 110lbs. :conf

 

How often do you hang out in Nicaragua or Japan?