Is this the end of Diaz as a top fighter?

He's not, Max is a very cool dude, very polite and about 50 percent of what you see on HBO once the cameras are off.

Had he been cdogg, it would have been on right then and there.

 

Don't follow up a good post (your own) with such crap. :doh:

 

:notallthere::notallthere:
What the hell, Diaz has like 0 early round ko against anyone worth a damn, shit, even against bums he doesn't score early ko.

 

and you would have bit my nipples, you filthy old cocksucker

 

I think his win over Freitas was the confidence builder he needed.

Also, I'd be careful about picking guys like Guzman or Valero to beat Diaz. Guzman's stamina issues and lack of punching power at 135 make me think Diaz has a great chance to beat him. As for Valero, I'm not sure how he'd respond to Diaz's pressure. He's not half as skilled fighting inside as Marquez is. And he's completely unproven at 135.

The key to beating Diaz is the ability to engage and fight with him inside. I don't think that's a common inclination given Diaz's work-rate and relentlessness.

 

It's obvious you haven't seen many of Diaz's fights. If you did, you'd know that Diaz, while he has an amazing work-rate and stamina, has very little punching power.

So JMM's getting through the early rounds is typical of every guy Diaz has ever fought. He has very few KO wins. And the ones he does have are over guys with questionable hearts, like Freitas, for example.

Bottom line is JMM's getting through the early rounds wasn't what was impressive about his performance. What was impressive was his breaking down and KOing a fighter who's known to have a good chin and an underrated defense.

 

agreed. he can handle punishment but seems to have zero tolerance for being cut. not sure about his ability to bouce back from losing his legs. i think it's the cuts thathe can't suck up mentally.

jmm cuts just about every fighter he faces. like arguello, he recognizes not only the ability to separate an opponent from his senses with punches, but also the ability to cut the skin with obtuse angles and non-concussive punching.

guys like vazquez and raffy are also looking to inflict cuts.

 

I thought Diaz looked as good as he's ever been against Marquez, its just that well,.........he was fighting Marquez. Didn't see the KO happening though, I thought JMM would take a clear decision. That could affect how he comes back. If the loss didn't take much out of him, then he'll still be a "good" fighter but I still agree that guys like Funeka and Guzman beat him. Diaz actually looked in the best shape of his life against JMM>

 

Diaz is absolutely a front runner. I've been saying this for a while.

He has guts to an extent, but when the going gets tough, he quits mentally. He does keep fighting of course, and doesn't LITERALLY quit, but he does quit mentally. He did it against Campbell, and again against Gay Marquez.

 

Exactly.

After the cut in the campbell and Fagquez fight, Diaz basically got on all fours and pulled his boxing trunks down to his knees. He lacks mental toughness.

 

He does get visibly discouraged.

I think part of that is he simply doesn't have a plan B. His style doesn't really change, from fight to fight or round to round, so if it's no longer working in a fight, there really isn't much he can do to change that.

 

That's one way of looking it at, but I don't think it's true.

Most pressure fighters don't have a plan B either.

But do you know what's in the make up of most great pressure fighters? They almost never get discouraged. To be a great pressure fighter you simply can't get discouraged easily.

A classic boxer, even a discouraged one, can still play keep away, try and keep you at the end of their jab. A puncher too, even a discouraged one, can still try and load up a KO shot.

A pressure fighter is screwed though.

 

I posted this a year and a half ago about Diaz after one of his wins:

The reason I am a very luke-warm fan of Juan Diaz despite the things he clearly has going for him as an exciting, active fighter is precisely because I feel like his opposition has been just about right for him to win decisions without too much risk or difficulty.

What would make me a fan of Juan Diaz is to see him jump in against someone who can CRACK & who isn't going away all night long. Juan Diaz is not "easy" to hit, really, but he sure as hell isn't hard to hit either. What makes Juan so strong is that he always ends up making the fight HIS fight... his ultra-high output coupled with his moving forward and stamina has forced most of the limited opponents he's faced so far to simply bend to his style.

So what would happen if for once, just once, the fight didn't go his way... he was taken out of cruise control and had to adapt, think, survive, and really scratch and claw his way to a win? Well we will only know when he faces a puncher (and not a completely washed-up Freitas), because NOTHING can test a fighter like being hurt, stunned, dizzy, and fucking PANICKED because you wake up on the canvas wondering what day it is. Even a JCC or Mickey Ward style body attack could seriously derail Juan Diaz's ability to do what he does to win fights.

I mean, imagine Juan Diaz slowed down from a few knockdowns or liver shots... he could not move as well, could not be as active, and god knows he can't punch hard enough to keep a good opponent from steamrolling him. We all know what an Ali or a SRL or would do to survive and win such a fight.. hell we even know what a Gatti or a Cotto or a Diego Corrales (RIP) would do to win such a fight...what would/could Juan Diaz do?

This is what I want to see; this is what would win me over. I want to know if Juan Diaz has the goods to make his mark on boxing, and I'll never really find that out until he finally gets in there with someone wherein he CAN'T make the fight go his way, and wherein he can be HURT if he gets careless flurrying pitty-pats every time he charges in with no jab.

​

I think it's proven to be EXACTLY true. Juan Diaz is gifted with extraordinary abilities, especially in terms of his workrate and stamina. Unfortunately, as my post alludes to, this amounts to basically nothing without the other pieces of the puzzle. Even if you throw 1,000 punches a round, if you cannot recover once things go south a bit, you cannot be a top-level fighter.

Glimpses of this came out long, long ago when Juan was first dropped by some nobody (can't remember the name) and he was really, really shaken and actually cried after the fight. That was the red flag. But he fought soooooooo long against overmatched opponents that we never really got a chance to see if the red flag was anything to truly worry about.

Years and years later, we finally got to see the exclamation point added against Campbell and then Marquez. As someone with no ill-will toward Juan Diaz, I can say that I truly believe he should hang 'em up and run for mayor down there. He'd win that fight.