Diaz busted up Katsidis's face with never-ending attacks of jabs, right hands, and the occasional uppercut to gain the advantage, but also to keep the latter's attack at bay. The young Houston native showed that the best way to defeat a guy like Katsidis is to never stop punching, lest he give Katsidis any windows to mount a serious attack. Katsidis was taken to an area hospital after the fight where it was learned he'd suffered a broken hand, which in hindsight explains a lot about the fighter's tactics in the championship rounds.

Chicago smile! Rocky Juarez, the other local favorite, was the victor in a great undercard battle against rough-and-tumble Jorge Barrios when the fight was stopped in the eleventh round due to a huge gash. Once again Juarez looked quite tentative in the early-going, but eventually he picked up the pace and began to visibly tire out his opponent.

Barrios was clearly winded from several body shots, and he didn't seem at all comfortable with his mouth piece for most of the night. In the eleventh these two factors collided when Barrios was caught sucking wind with his mouth open only to have it shut forcefully by another Juarez barrage. The attack left Barrios spurting blood from a flap of skin that was once part of the fighter's lip. Not good times.

The fall of Khan. Amir Khan, the supposed next big thing out of the United Kingdom, was placed firmly on his ass in a first round knockout loss to fellow undefeated fighter Breides Prescott of Colombia. Yeah, that's a shame, idnit?

Image by Julio Cortez of the Houston Chronicle.

Congratulations to fellow blogger, and master of the fistic arts, David "Large" Larzelere on the birth of his son. May he always keep his gloves up.

"All I know is I've got a big fight coming up. The only thing that concerns me is that there's a great potential for one of us to get seriously hurt on Saturday night. So there is no crossroads if one of us gets hurt. I am only thinking about winning. I'm not looking at it any deeper than that."

Awesome.

And if you aren't yet familiar with Diaz, you should be. The Houston native is a tremendous American athlete who is consistently ignored by the national media. The 24 year-old nicknamed "Baby Bull" carries a record of 33-1, and when not boxing he's studying for his poly-sci degree at the University of Houston and volunteering to register voters. He's also one of the best brawlers in the sport today, and he never fails to entertain.

The undercard features a pretty great fight in its own right between Jorge Barrios (another thrilling fighter) and another widely popular Houston fighter, Rocky Juarez. I'm not making a prediction for the main event, but I'm going with Juarez in a knockout victory on the co-feature.

Enjoy the fights (free on HBO), and be sure to check back here tomorrow.

Diaz-Katsidis: When Their Loss Is Our Gain
Fight Day Quotes