{"id":14677,"date":"2011-08-16T20:54:25","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T00:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=14677"},"modified":"2011-08-16T20:54:25","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T00:54:25","slug":"boxing-news-david-diaz-returns-to-the-ring-on-august-19th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=14677","title":{"rendered":"Boxing News: David Diaz Returns to the Ring on August 19th"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Chicago\u2019s David Diaz (36-3-1, 17 KOs) has his wife to Tonya to thank when he appears in the co-featured bout of the final episode of ESPN\u2019s \u201cFriday Night Fights\u201d 2011 season, this Friday, August 19, at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. The Former WBC lightweight world champion and 1996 U.S. Olympian had all but retired from boxing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife is a big boxing fan. We were watching fights and I would tell her I used to do this stuff and she\u2019d say it looks like you miss it; why not go to the gym? She told me two or three times and finally I said I\u2019ll go to the gym and see if I like it\u2026 The first day I stayed in the gym for four hours. People were saying \u2018Dave you should relax,\u2019 and I would say \u2018You don\u2019t know how much I miss this!\u2019 It all came back.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so he is back to face Philadelphia\u2019s rising contender \u201cHammerin\u2019\u201d Hank Lundy (20-1-1, 10 KOs) in a lightweight bout scheduled for 10 rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed time off because I was boxing since I was eight years old, but I\u2019m back now, thanks to my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz vs. Lundy will serve as the opening televised bout. The night\u2019s 10-round junior middleweight main event will feature Providence, Rhode Island\u2019s 2008 U.S. Olympian Demetrius \u201cBoo Boo\u201d Andrade (13-0, 9 KOs) against always dangerous veteran Grady Brewer (28-12, 16 KOs) of Lawton, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

A local hero, Diaz won the WBC title in August 2006, and successfully defended against Mexican legend Erik Morales the following year.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraining went really good. We have no problems. I had great sparring and it went really good,\u201d he said after one of his final workouts. \u201cI\u2019m still working with Jim Strickland and Mike Garcia and I\u2019m definitely ready. It\u2019s going to be a two-year run and we\u2019ll see what we get out of it. My body has about two more years to fight at the top level and compete for titles. That\u2019s all I\u2019ll be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaz, like many others, knows he hasn\u2019t chosen an easy road to return to full-time boxing. Lundy is a formidable opponent by all accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll fights make me nervous. You can\u2019t go in over-confident because you end up losing. Hank Lundy is exceptionally good. He has great speed, decent power and he switches off, so it\u2019ll be a hard a fight. But I believe I want this more than he does. I\u2019ve had the better opposition and my experience will show in this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s fight will also be a reunion of sorts, as Diaz will be fighting for his original promoter, Bobby Hitz of Hitz Boxing. \u201cBobby is a great guy I get along great with him. I\u2019ve never had an issue with him and he\u2019s been good to me. And it\u2019s the best feeling. Fighting in the Chicagoland area is the best because you have to put on a good show for your people. I told him I wanted to fight on his card, so he said let me see what I can do. And now here I am!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago\u2019s David Diaz (36-3-1, 17 KOs) has his wife to Tonya to thank when he appears in the co-featured bout of the final episode of ESPN\u2019s \u201cFriday Night Fights\u201d 2011 season, this Friday, August 19, at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. The Former WBC lightweight world champion and 1996 U.S. Olympian had all but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[105,4087],"class_list":["post-14677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-boxing","tag-david-diaz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14677"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}