Montana Love Continues to Shine in Win Over Carlos Diaz
In his latest at bat, super lightweight boxer Montana “Too Pretty” Love (17-0-1, 9 KO’s) maintained his unblemished record by way of third round knockout. The match made for a fun follow-up to his last fight, and career best win, over Ivan Baranchyk. In this contest, his second under the Matchroom Boxing and DAZN banner, Love chopped up and disposed of Carlos “Chuko” Diaz (29-2, 14 KO’s). While he did enjoy a solid showing in the ring, Love drew some criticism for missing the 140 pound weight limit by almost four pounds when he tipped the scales to a tune of 143.8. Going forward, it would behoove him to button this up.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
With this affair out of the way, Too Pretty, who is ranked #12 (IBF), can now resume his focus on snagging some of the bigger names. Love, 26, has already made it very well known that he is seeking dust-ups with both Gervonta Davis and undisputed super lightweight champion Josh Taylor. Whether or not he can bag those fights has yet to be seen. If not Davis or Taylor, perhaps Love will have to turn his attention elsewhere. Perhaps the Cleveland native might try to stage a sort of Battle of Ohio with Toledo’s own Robert Easter Jr.
RELATED: Montana Love: “Josh Taylor & Gervonta Davis Fights Make Sense!”
Despite his relative inactivity as of late, Easter is still ranked #8 (IBF) and has nearly always provided fun and action-packed fights. Or maybe Too Pretty will start calling the name of #5 (IBF) ranked Regis Prograis. Assuming that Love contracted and won that match, it would bestow upon him a tremendous amount of new legitimacy within the division. Yet, only time will tell what is next for Love.
No doubt this was a soggy day in the ring and a sour initiation to US soil for Diaz. Now that he’s been saddled with a second knockout loss, in his American debut, Chuko will have to return to the drawing board to regroup and strategize a new plan of action.
THREE TIMES DOWN FOUR TIMES UP
The bout began in rather restrained fashion as Love allowed Diaz to pursue and played the role of counter-puncher. The tactic worked well. Throughout the opening period, the southpaw was able to connect with several uppercuts, body shots and check hooks. Then in the first minute of the second, Diaz walked into a left uppercut and right hook that laid him on his side like the Thriller album cover. The tough fighter gritted his way through and fought on.
Moments later, Too Pretty put him on the seat of his pants with the exact same punches. With just over a minute to go, Love dropped Diaz for a third time. This time the Cleveland native deposited Chuko into the ropes with a right hook and left uppercut. Despite going down so many times, ironically, the Mexican’s legs remained fairly steady throughout.
In brazen fashion, Diaz came right after Love in the third and applied a tremendous amount of pressure, initially. After about a minute of this however, Chuko began easing up on the gas. When he did so, Montana backed him to the corner with a series of jabs and fired off a stiff jab-straight left barrage. Then, very quizzically, referee Raul Caiz Jr jumped in and stopped the fight even though no clean punch scored.
The quick stoppage was more aggravating considering that Diaz was having a decent bounce-back round. The anti-climatic finish is technically not Love’s fault, so he will no doubt happily accept the ninth stoppage of his professional career and look for the next best fight.
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By: Bakari Simpson
