Today we saw the end of Gamaliel Diaz's (37-10-2, 17) short reign as WBC Super Featherweight champion thanks to the hard hitting Japanese fighter Takashi Miura (25-2-2, 19) who genuinely destroyed Diaz.
Miura, who had lost his only previous world title bout by 8th round retirement to Takashi Uchiyama set out with bad intentions and appeared to find a place for his hurtful left hand very early in the bout. The powerful Japanese southpaw, who had actually dropped Uchiyama before being stopped himself, was finding Diaz regularly and managed to drop the defending champion in round 3 as the Mexican was forced to feel the sting. Though at the 4 round mark all the scores were 37-37 with Miura having been deducted a point for a clash of heads in the opening rounds.
Diaz, who had claimed the title last time he was in Japan by upsetting Takahiro Ao, was again forced to taste Miura's bull like power in rounds 6 and 7 as he was dropped in both rounds. By now Miura was pulling well ahead of the champion who simply couldn't take his power.
Sadly for Diaz he couldn't avoid Miura and the Japanese challenger was relentless in looking for the stoppage which eventually came midway through round 9.
This results rather nicely sets us up for a very interesting rematch between Uchiyama and Miura if both fighters want to unify (as Uchiyama still holds the WBA title) though Miura may feel other options better suit him. In fact Miura against someone like Sergio Thompson (WBC #1) or Devis Boschiero (WBC #2) would both be great fights to watch and from a British point of view Miura v Gary Buckland (WBC #12) would also hold a personal interest.
For the 32 year old Diaz this doesn't spell the end of his career though it does likely end his pretension of being a genuine world level fighter.
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