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View Full Version : Juan Diaz focused on rematch but eyes life beyond boxing too



lpinoy
07-29-2010, 01:57 AM
C/P
By Bob Velin, USA TODAY

Willie Savannah laughs as he recalls the first time Juan Diaz walked into his Houston boxing club 18 years ago.
"Juan was a little fat kid — 8 years old, 110 pounds — and he ate everything that wasn't nailed down," Savannah says with a chuckle. "We used to have birthday parties for the kids in the gym, and he'd be the first one in line — smiling from ear to ear to get some birthday cake."

Savannah's gym was "on its last legs" at the time, and he figured once the little fat kid left, he'd shut down the club and file for bankruptcy.

"Well, the little fat kid never did leave," Savannah says.

Thus began a beautiful, life-long friendship. Savannah remains Diaz's manager and close adviser.

"He has a fighting heart, and over the years he has learned a lot of skills," Savannah says. "But he's such a nice kid. His personality is amazing. He's smart, and his whole personality makes him the well-rounded person that he is."

Eight years after he first walked into the gym, the baby fat long since melted away, Diaz turned pro at 16, acquired the nickname "Baby Bull" for his penchant for charging opponents and became world lightweight champion at 20, one of the youngest ever. By 25, he was a college graduate.

Diaz, 26, is the rarest of breeds in a sport measured by blood and guts, not brains. The son of Mexican immigrants, armed with superior boxing skills and intellect, Diaz, with his political science degree from the University of Houston secured, is preparing for his LSAT, with a goal of entering law school in Fall 2011.

But first, on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (HBO pay-per-view, 9 p.m. ET), Diaz (35-3, 17 KOs) will try to become a four-time world champion and even the score against 36-year-old Mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5, 37 KOs) in a lightweight (135 pounds) title rematch of 2009's fight of the year.

Marquez knocked out Diaz in the ninth round of their spectacular first fight Feb. 28, 2009, in Houston. Diaz was dominating the first half before suffering a cut over his right eye that distracted him enough to allow the wily Marquez to turn it around.

Ronnie Shields, Diaz's trainer, says the cut had nothing to do with it. His fighter just got overanxious trying to impress the hometown fans.

"Our plan was to put the pressure on (Marquez), then back off and box a little more," Shields says. "But Juan started leaning in with punches and Marquez, with those great uppercuts, just caught him leaning in.

"He wanted to knock Marquez out. He wanted to do something nobody had done. But Juan is not a puncher. I think he got caught up in the hype and stopped listening. He had it in his mind he just wanted to beat this guy."

Doing what nobody has done before is what motivates Diaz.

Diaz, and those who surround him, believe he was born to blaze trails. He has never met a goal he didn't think he could conquer. He has no doubt that he will be a successful attorney, helping young boxers handle their finances or working with immigrants to become U.S. citizens.

"I think (boxing) will help me not only in the courtroom but also in my (law) classes," says Diaz, who is so concerned with his brain function that he gets a CT scan after every tough fight to make sure there is no damage. "Boxing has taught me that you have to have a lot of dedication and a lot of patience to be successful. Same thing as a lawyer."

Growing up dirt poor

There is precedence in the Diaz family for patience, dedication and trailblazing. His parents, Olivia and Fidencio Diaz, came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico in the early 1980s. They wanted their yet unborn children to have a better education and quality of life. They settled in Houston.

"As a little kid I really didn't know what was going on," says Diaz, who was born in 1983. "All I can remember is my parents had nothing. I remember sleeping on the floor of a trailer home. Didn't even have a bed, but I didn't think much of it. I thought that's just the way things were.

"I didn't even know my parents were in this country illegally until I grew up and they explained to me all their struggles."

To this day, Diaz says, his parents have never asked for a dime from him. "I tried to tell my mom to quit her job, but she still doesn't want to quit working," he says. "They say, 'That's your hard-earned money, not ours.' "

Diaz's parents became naturalized U.S. citizens after immigration amnesty in the '90s. Olivia Diaz never stopped pushing her two sons — Juan's kid brother Jose also was a boxer — to get the best education possible. Her husband, a boxing fanatic, set out to find a gym for Juan and found it at Savannah's Boxing Club.

Juan soon found that Savannah was more than just a boxing teacher. He became a surrogate parent. He'd cook meals for Juan (and still does) at the gym, where he has a full kitchen. He and his wife drove Diaz, then a teen, to competition across the USA and Mexico, sometimes for 14 hours.

"He's been the guy that always guided me in my boxing career," Diaz says. "He's always preached that boxing is second, school is No. 1. And he's always pushed for me to get a better education."

Savannah relates the time when Juan was about 18, and he complained: " 'I'm tired of going to school and boxing.' I said, 'That's fine, Juan, you can quit boxing.' He said, 'What about school?' I said, 'That's not an option. You're going to school or you're not going to box. That's the bottom line.' He said, 'OK, forget it.' "

'Just a gifted person'

Jose Diaz, 24, who is Juan's right-hand man during training and runs a construction company the brothers own together, marvels, with awe and envy, at how easily his brother has combined college and high-level boxing.

"Juan was just a gifted person who made it look so easy," says Jose, who also attends the University of Houston. "For us regular people, it's extremely difficult. I wanted to quit so many times, but him and my mom would never let me quit."

Jose, who lives with his brother, says he'd have to stay up half the night studying for exams, but Juan "would study for a test for maybe an hour and say, 'Oh, I got this,' and the next day would get an A on the test."

No test will be bigger for Diaz than Saturday's rematch.

"We know how good a fighter Marquez is," Shields says. "We've been there, done that. Now it's back to the drawing board to figure out how to beat this guy. We have a game plan. We're sticking to what we know. Juan has to box, he has to pay attention to what he's doing, because at any moment Marquez can strike."

Diaz calls it a win-win situation. "If I win the fight, then I go on to bigger and better fights," he says. "If I don't, then I move on to other parts of my life and do bigger and better things in that aspect of my life and my future."

Whatever happens, Jose Diaz is certain his brother will prevail.

"I have no doubt in my mind that whatever he puts his heart into, he will be successful," Jose says. "He's done that since he was a little fat boy at 8 years old. Whatever he did, he was awesome at it. Whatever he wanted, he accomplished it."

Gamer
07-29-2010, 02:19 AM
I still dont get why a rematch between these two.Marquez being the crafty veteran this will be a repeat of the first.Maybe marquez is a little older but diaz lacks the power to knock him out.The two last fights with paulie mallignaggi did not show me anything new that I would think he would win this time.I just hope he does not get hurt.