Photo by Esther Lin/Showtime
On Saturday, April 26, 2014, Keith Thurman (23-0, 21 KOs) and Julio Diaz (40-10, 29 KOs) headlined an exciting triple-header on Showtime Championship Boxing, presented by Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Corona, AT&T and Casamigos Tequila.
In a fight that was stopped as soon as it became competitive, Julio Diaz was no longer allowed to leave his corner due to a rib injury caused by a Thurman body shot.
Powerful hook to the body by Thurman. Diaz was game. #Boxing#ThurmanDiazpic.twitter.com/Ut28LH6g8y
— RoundByRoundBoxing (@RBRBoxing) April 27, 2014
In the first round, Thurman backed Diaz against the ropes and landed powerful shots that were interrupted by Thurman’s sudden change of angle.
Thurman landed, stepped around or stepped back, and landed more. He was sharp as he picked his power shots.
In the second round, Thurman landed a thunderous left hook that removed any look of emotion on Diaz’s face. Thurman later scored a knock down after hitting Diaz with a left to the back of the head before the round ended.
Diaz took a knee soon after the punch landed, perhaps because he was hurt and perhaps to avoid more punches.
In the third and final round, Thurman easily outboxed Diaz and at times did so with his hands down. Nevertheless, his recklessness soon hurt him as Diaz began to find his range.
The fight seemed to be turning around, or at least getting better, when Diaz returned to his corner. He was no longer allowed to fight after the corner realized his injury.
In a possible fight of the year candidate, Lucas Matthysse (35-3, 33 KOs) knocked out John Molina (27-4, 22 KOs) in the 11th round of a veritable war.
Both men had been knocked down twice before the fight’s end and both were involved in powerful exchanges.
In the first round, the much taller Molina used his legs to move around Matthysse.
He was clearly aware of his opponent’s power, but it did not prevent him from landing a powerful overhand right that hurt Matthysse.
Matthysse responded, as if suddenly awakened, with shots of his own but he was having trouble landing on a much taller opponent.
Indeed, Matthysse was the victim of short counterpunches before being dropped in the second round with a powerful right hand. It was a surprise knockdown that elicited shouts from a largely pro-Matthysse crowd.
After being cut early in the third round by a headbutt, Matthysse began to intensify his offense but was still having trouble properly finding Molina’s chin.
Matthysse landed power right hands in the fifth and demonstrated that he was slowly wearing Molina down. The fight seemed to begin to turn at this point.
Indeed, Matthysse landed his offense at will in the fifth round, timing Molina much easier and landing powerful right hands.
However, before the end of the round, Matthysse was dropped by a punch to the back of the head. From ringside, it even seemed as if Molina pushed him as he landed it.
Nevertheless, the referee deemed it knockdown as Matthysse protested the decision. Molina was surprisingly ahead by several points by the fifth round.
A crowd that had initially booed his name and chanted Matthysse’s, perhaps inspired by his effort, began shouting Molina’s name.
In the eighth round, Matthysse landed thunderous shots on Molina while he had him on the ropes.
A stoic Molina, however, took it with stride, landing a few of his own before being dropped by a powerful combination that was followed by a push.
The push was not protested by Molina as he was seriously hurt. In the following round, Matthysse stalked a hurt Molina and landed vicious shots throughout the round.
However, Molina, who was surprisingly still standing after a barrage of bombs, managed to fight back with hooks of his own before the round’s end.
In the 10th round, Matthysse landed a barrage of punches that nearly forced the referee to stop the fight before Molina was knocked down. Molina was allowed to recover, but only to receive more punishment to finish the round.
The corner was warned by the doctor between the rounds, but an angry and adamant Joe Goossen refused to stop it.
Molina was quickly stopped in the following round.
In the first televised bout on Showtime, Omar Figueroa (23-0, 17 KOs) won a close split-decision victory over Jerry Belmontes (19-4, 5 KOs) in a 12-round bout for Figueroa’s WBC Lightweight title.
Belmontes began the fight using his footwork and jab, staying outside of Figueroa’s range. Belmontes landed the harder shots of the first two rounds, eliciting shouts of “Ooh!” from the attendees in Carson.
In the third round, Belmontes landed counter left hooks and pushed Figueroa against the ropes where he was able to land powerful shots. Belmontes received the occasional counterpunch, but his shoulder roll stance was effective at close range.
In the fourth round, it became clear the major drawback Figueroa has: his arms are sometimes too long for his style.
Indeed, Figueroa often tried to fight on the inside, where he is usually effective, but it did not help him against a boxer with smaller arms.
It seemed as if he’d attempted to fight from a distance in the beginning of the fourth, but his killer instincts could not be eradicated from him that easily.
By the fifth, they were once again toe-to-toe, with Belmontes landing punches on an already bleeding Figueroa.
By the later rounds, Belmontes was well within his rhythm, using his footwork despite boos from the crowd. Belmontes switched the game plan and fought from the outside in the later rounds.
However, it may have done him more bad than good. Instead of demonstrating that he strongly wanted a win, he coasted the last few rounds on his back foot.
Belmontes might be the better boxer, but if he wanted to win the title by decision he had to of shown that he really wanted it.
He needed to set his feet down and land a few more punches.
In the end, the judges scored the bout 115-113 for Belmontes and 116-112, 118-110 for Figueroa.
The fight was close, but David Mendoza’s score of 118-110 was a terrible score.
Header photo by Esther Lin/Showtime
