Former IBF lightweight titlist Julio Diaz looked sharp in weathering the hard charges of Fernando Trejo. It wasn’t an overly awe inspiring performance by the Coachella fighter but never the less, it provided a good litmus test on where Diaz is following his TKO loss to Juan Diaz last year. While not completely sold on Diaz’ readiness to challange for a lightweight title, the fight with Trejo proved that he could handle relentless pressure from a game opponent. Though I do provide this caveat, Diaz eats far too many right hands for my liking. Fortunately for Diaz, Trejo lacked one-punch KO power, as he was able to tag Diaz repeatedly with a lead right.
In the co-main event of the night, touted Oxnard based prospect Miguel Angel Garcia, survived some rocky moments to win a unanimous decision over tough Walter Estrada. Garcia has the tools and the look of a polished product. His stance is textbook, with excellent feet placement to maximize the leverage on his punches. Still despite the polished look, Garcia was repeatedly cought flush with straight lefts from Estrada. In fact Garcia was floored early in the fight when Estrada landed a straight left that landed flush on the chin. But like many old school observers like to point out, the true measure of a fighter is their ability to handle adversity. In that light, Garcia should be lauded for his ability to rise from the canvas and battle his way to a one-sided victory. What I didnt like from Garcia was his tendancy to lead with the left hook. Now I may be an arm chair Ray Arcel, but I was always taught to never lead with a hook, you set the hook up with the jab and I beleive if Garcia had done such he would have avoided some of those straight lefts.
