Humberto Soto edges David Diaz; John Duddy wins
ARLINGTON, Texas — Humberto Soto, a reigning junior lightweight titleholder, moved up from 130 to 135 pounds to outslug and outbox former titleholder David Diaz to claim a vacant lightweight title via unanimous decision on Saturday night.
The fight was the co-feature on the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey undercard before an excited crowd of 50,994 Saturday night at Cowboys Stadium.
Soto (51-7-2, 32 KOs), 33, of Mexico, bookended the victory with knockdowns in the first and 12th rounds.
The fight started with a bang as they clashed heads in the opening round. Soto was shaken up and Diaz was cut, but later in the round, Soto knocked Diaz down with a counter left hand.
Soto fired combinations throughout the fight while the slower Diaz (35-3-1, 17 KOs), 33, of Chicago, tried to get out of the way and had little success landing anything meaningful in return.
Soto, who will likely vacate his 130-pound title, also scored a knockdown on a flurry in the final seconds of the fight to punctuate his victory.
Two judges had it 117-109 for Soto and the third had it 115-111 for Soto.
“I think Diaz being left-handed was a little more difficult than I thought it would be, but I was able to control the fight,” Soto said. “I just couldn’t hit him as hard as I wanted. He’s a real tough guy.”
Diaz was fighting for only the second time since losing his lightweight belt to Pacquiao via lopsided ninth-round knockout in June 2008. In his next fight, Diaz scored a majority decision against former titleholder Jesus Chavez in September 2009, a win that hardly should have qualified him to fight for that belt again.
“I’m very disappointed,” Diaz said. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. In the last round, that was no knockdown. I missed the punch [and went down].”
Gomez makes Castillo quit
Welterweight Alfonso Gomez (22-4-2, 11 KOs), younger, quicker and fresher, beat Mexican countryman Jose Luis Castillo (60-10-1, 52 KOs) to the punch all night until he quit after the fifth round.
Castillo then announced his retirement.
“I want to apologize to the public and I am definitely announcing my retirement because I don’t have it anymore,” said Castillo, the former two-time lightweight champ whose 2005 10th-round knockout loss to Diego Corrales is considered perhaps the greatest fight in boxing history.
Castillo, 36 and years past his prime, couldn’t get off as Gomez, who starred in the first season of “The Contender,” peppered him nearly at will. Castillo’s right eye began to swell in the third round and his nose was also bloody.
Gomez kept him on the outside and moved just enough to prevent Castillo from landing anything serious. When the fifth round was over, Castillo returned to his corner with a look of resignation before referee Kenny Bayless waived it off at the request of the corner.
“I just don’t have it anymore,” Castillo said. “This guy is hitting me with both hands and there was nothing I could do. I can’t hit him back. It’s frustrating.”
Gomez, 29, won his fourth in a row following his fifth-round knockout loss to then-welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto in 2008 and put himself in position for a bigger fight.
“I practiced a lot with [prospect] Brandon Rios and he pushed me hard like we thought Castillo would try to do,” Gomez said. “I respect Castillo a lot. He has given us all entertaining fights. We thought he would pressure us, but he couldn’t because I was hitting him with good shots.”
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