Too Good Once More: Marquez Batters Diaz

Juan Manuel Marquez retained his lightweight crown at the Mandalay Bay last night with an impressive unanimous decision victory over Juan Diaz.  The win made it 2 for 2 over Diaz for the masterful Mexican, who was in control from start to finish.  Though he didn't flatten Diaz, the win was certainly more one-sided than the first meeting as the Houston fighter never approached the same kind of success he had over the first six rounds last year.

The Baby Bull tried a different approach this time out, choosing to box with sporadic bursts of aggression - a strategy that kept him upright, though never gave him a real chance to win.  By the mid rounds it was clear Marquez was too good and though he finished with a badly swollen eye, most of the damage clearly came from his fists.  The scores were 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112.

The night's most dramatic moment came in the middleweight clash between Dmitry Pirog and Daniel Jacobs with the Russian finishing the 23 year old New York fighter with a perfect right hand.  Up to that point it had been a closely contested bout, with Jacobs ahead 39-37 on all cards.

Robert Guerrero survived a tenth round knockdown to win a lopsided ten rounder over Joel Casamayor in a bout almost totally devoid of action.  Though Casamayor looked well past his best and shaky early, Guerrero took few chances to really stamp his seal on the bout.  The scores were 98-89, 98-89 and 97-90.

In the ten round opener, Jorge Linares put forth an impressive perfomance in easily out-boxing Rocky Juarez. Linares dropped Juarez late in the fifth round with a nice uppercut, and cruised to a 99-90, 99-90, 97-92 victory.  Had the knockdown occurred a little earlier in the round, Linares might very well have finished matters early as Juarez didn't look all that steady after rising.

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