DAVID DIAZ vs CRISTIAN FAVELA

The always game and good value David Diaz meets a substitute on Telefutura (to be shown on tape the following evening due to World Cup coverage) when he takes on Cristian Favela in a 12-rounder for the vacant IBA lightweight title.

Diaz, 30, boxed in the 1996 Olympics but although he built up a winning run as a professional he was never what could be termed a blue-chip prospect, neither a fast, classy boxer nor a particularly severe puncher, but a good, honest, busy-punching fighter who outworks opponents and wears them down with attrition.

Like just about everyone else I was surprised when the Chicago southpaw was stopped in the eighth round by the sharp and hard hitting Kendall Holt on ShoBox in February of last year. Diaz had one of those shocking first rounds, getting dropped and cut, and he could never really get back into the fight against a much faster and straighter-punching fighter, even though his pressure won him a couple of rounds.

That remains Diaz’s only loss in 32 bouts, however, and if he is not quite world class he is, I think, a bit better than what we would call a journeyman.

Diaz had a war in his last fight against the unsung but tough Mexican Silverio Ortiz, fighting from the first round with a cut over his right eye but almost overwhelming Ortiz in the eighth before winning by unanimous decision.

He meets another tough sort in Favela, who usually puts up a good fight. Although Favela has lost nearly as many bouts a he has won (11-10-4, with eight opponents stopped) he has faced tough opposition and he did box a draw with the solid Efren Hinojosa in an eight-rounder last December. As Hinojosa was originally due to meet Diaz, the fact that Favela fought him on level terms makes him an acceptable replacement.

My impression of Favela, 26, is that he is one of those boxers who, as they say in the trade, “fights well enough to lose". He is usually “in" the fight but does not seem able to raise his level of performance to the necessary level when he meets the higher-calibre fighters. He was well beaten by the Filipino prospect Czar Amonsot in his last fight and he lost widely on points to fighters such as Steven Luevano (who knocked him down) and ex-champ Javier Jauregui. Yet if Favela really digs down and comes to win he can be a bit of a handful, as he showed when winning a majority decision over the classier Willie Jorrin in 2003 although Jorrin, a former 122-pound champion, was fighting well above his best boxing weight and in fact never fought again.

I believe that Favela can be competitive against Diaz, who of course has to considered a hittable fighter, but he is likely to be outfought and outworked. Diaz might have to take some shots and it seems, unfortunately, that the chance of him getting cut over the right eye is always a distinct possibility, but if worst comes to worst he should still be able to punch his way through to a fairly wide win on points simply by fighting harder and with a greater urgency than his opponent.