Home Cooking: Juarez-Barrios and Diaz-Katsidis

Tonight, in Houston Texas, veteran also-rans Rocky Juarez and Jorge Barrios squared off in a co-feature prior to once-beatens Juan 'the Baby Bull' Diaz and Michael 'the Great' Katsidis battling it out in the main event. While the fights were good, when they were allowed to happen, fans were treated to a night of bizarre refereeing by Rafael Ramos and Laurence Cole.

The most bizarre of the two fights was the first, in which Jorge Barrios dominated the action from the second round after letting himself be out-jabbed in the first. He boxed well, through his punches with authority, moved reasonably well, and was busier than Juarez throughout the fight. From the second round to the tenth, on my scorecard, Juarez only won the eighth. It was in the eighth, however, that Juarez found his winning formula. Firing to the body, he was able to come upstairs and get some work done to steal the eighth round and make a fight in the ninth and tenth (though he came up just a touch short in both.) In the eleventh, however, the formula paid off. Juarez floored Barrios with a combination (though it also appeared as if their feet were entangled) and the referee began to count. Barrios made it back to his feet, but a particularly gory cut on his mouth prompted the referee to stop the fight at the behest of the ringside doctor. The stoppage was legitimate, but the referee docking Barrios points for alleged low blows in the third and ninth rounds was highly questionable and so were the numerous warnings issued to Barrios for low blows throughout the fight. The judges had inexplicable scores, through ten rounds, with one card even and Juarez winning on the other two despite Barrios very nearly literally dominating the fight until the moment he was floored.

That said, it was a strong performance by Juarez, who was patient enough to stalk and walk his opponent down even while being very nearly dominated and who scored the points that mattered at the key moment without any help from the referee or the judges. For a fighter who has had so much hard luck and trouble in big fights in the past, the 11th round TKO win must have been sweet. He was so happy and pleasant in his postfight interview that it was impossible not to like him and to be happy for him. I felt glad he won, listening to him talk, despite having been rooting enthusiastically for the equally hard-luck Barrios throughout the fight itself.

The second fight was even more bizarre. While my card had Diaz dominating the early fight, starting with an even round and with Katisidis winning only the fifth round, the numerous warnings given to Katsidis for simply fighting the kind of fight a big, strong brawler naturally fights appeared highly questionable. Diaz boxed extremely well, and Katsidis was fighting too disciplined and patient a fight to deal with the native Texan's higher work rate through the first seven rounds. I gave him the fifth because I believed his punching was more effective, and I called first even because neither fighter gained a clear advantage, but Diaz was clearly the better man overall.

In the second half of the fight, as Katisidis began to pick up his pace and out-throw Diaz going down the stretch, referee Laurence Cole stopped the action repeatedly. He cut demanded tape be cut off Katsidis' glove, he had the doctor check Katsidis' cuts, he issued another warning, he didn't let Katsidis jump on Diaz coming out for the bell. Even in rounds when the action was not stopped, he slowed Katsidis down and then told both men to fight once both were in the center of the ring. Despite this, I gave Katsidis the eighth, ninth, and eleventh rounds and called the tenth and twelfth rounds even based on the strength of Katsidis' power shots down the stretch. At the end of the fight, my card had it a 116-116 draw.

One judge had his card close to mine, Glen Hamada calling the fight 115-113 for Katsidis, having given him rounds 8-12 outright. The other two judges had wins for Diaz, justified in what I felt was a closer fight than the HBO broadcast team would have led the tv viewer to believe. Watching the fight, I was sure Diaz had won big too, looking at the fight as one organic piece, and I don't find the decision unjustified. However, round by round, Katsidis fought very well and took the fight to Diaz hard late in the struggle. Diaz's moments in the tenth and the twelfth were not enough to give him those rounds outright, but were enough to blunt Katsidis' momentum. I think Katsidis, in the future, would be better served to punch hard from the opening bell rather than trying to box.

The conduct of the referees was terrible, despite the quality of the fights, and Laurence Cole's continued excuses for delaying the beginning of late rounds left me wanting what should have been the climax of the fight to just be over and done with. While I agree completely with the checking of the tape, was there really any cause to stop Katsidis from coming hard out of his corner in the rounds when the tape was NOT an issue? Both referees imposed themselves far too much on the fights when they should have stayed out of the way. Their inability to do so was a big weakness in what should have been a great card.

I'd like to see Katsidis again. Despite having lost two in a row now, he has an Arturo Gatti flair about him that could take him far. If he reverts to his former wild man style, he might even do better against busy boxer-punchers like Diaz. A rematch might be interesting. He came into this fight a very big lightweight, perhaps he has a future at junior welter.

Jorge Barrios, despite having boxed very well, should consider retirement. He came into the fight with Juarez off the longest layoff of his career only to suffer an ugly injury which will lead to another long layoff. At his age, 32 is old for a junior lightweight, time lost is time never regained.