Félix Díaz (boxer)

Manuel Félix Díaz Guzman (born December 10, 1983 in Santo Domingo ) is a boxer from the Dominican Republic . He was Olympic light welterweight champion in Beijing in 2008 .

Career

amateur

Félix Díaz grew up in a poor neighborhood in East Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The young colored man came to boxing there and initially fought in the lightweight (up to 60 kg body weight) and in 2005 switched to the light welterweight (up to 64 kg body weight). At a height of 1.65 m, it weighs around 65 kg.

Félix Díaz's international boxer career began in 2002 at the Junior World Championships in Santiago de Cuba . He defeated the American Karl Dargan in the lightweight there , but lost to the Russian Dawid Arustamjan in the second round and finished in 9th place. In the same year he won the title at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador . He landed there three premature wins over Stanley Méndez from Costa Rica , Jesús González from Mexico and Alexander de Jesús from Puerto Rico . Finally, in 2002 he also won the Batalle de Carabobo tournament in Valencia / Venezuela with a victory in the lightweight final over Wilfredo López from Venezuela.

2003 Félix Díaz took part in the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo and came in third place in the lightweight. There he defeated Ramiro Quinones from Ecuador and Matias Ferreira from Argentina on points, but lost in the semifinals to world champion Mario Kindelán from Cuba on points. He did an excellent job in this fight against the outstanding boxer Kindelán, because he lost only 12:16 points.

In 2004 Félix Díaz took second place in the light weight qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games in Athens in Tijuana / Mexico, although he could no longer compete in the final against Vicente Escobedo from the United States . Second place was enough for participation in the 2004 Olympic Games. In Athens he met Serik Jeleuow from Kazakhstan after a bye in the round of 16 , against whom he lost on points. He came in ninth place.

In 2006 Félix Díaz took part in the Independence Cup in his native Santo Domingo . He now started in the light welterweight division. He won this tournament with victories over Julio de Jesús Rodriguez, Dom. Rep., Myke Carvalho from Brazil and Francisco Contreres, Dom. Rep. At the Copa Romana 2006 in La Romana , he finished third with a victory over Carlos Espinosa from Ecuador and a loss to Kevin Bizier from Canada .

In 2007 he took part again in the Independence Cup in Santo Domingo. He lost in the light welterweight division after defeating Myke Carvalho in the final against the Cuban champion Innocente Fiss on points. He also took second place at the Copa Romana 2007 when, after victories over his compatriots Juan Carlos Abreu, José Antonio Rodriguez and Euris Bernardo in the final, he was unable to play against Rafael González from Venezuela due to an injury. At the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro , he first won over Gumersindo Carrasco from Argentina by breaking off in the second round, but suffered a defeat against Innocente Fiss in the quarterfinals, which was extremely close with 12:13 points. In 2007 he also took part in the World Amateur Championship in Chicago . He won his first fight there over Su Hsiao Ken from Taiwan , but lost in the next fight against Masatsugu Kawachi from Japan just on points (14:15), dropped out and only came in 17th place in the final score.

Félix Díaz started the 2008 Olympic year again with a start at the Independence Cup . He won there over Kevin Bizier by breaking off in the third round, then won over Ualace Almeida from Brazil and Leonardo Castillo, Dom. Rep. On points and was defeated in the final battle to the Cuban champion Rosniel Iglesias just on points (3: 4). Then he took in Port of Spain on Trinidad on the first American qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games in Beijing in part. He did not make this qualification there because he lost on points in his first fight against Aaron Hassette from Trinidad. The following qualification tournament in Guatemala City then offered him the last opportunity to qualify for the Olympic Games. With a knockout victory in the first round over Nicolas Silva from Uruguay and points wins over Leonardo Carillo from Colombia (10: 9) and Myke Carvalho (8: 6), he actually managed to qualify for the Olympics after all.

In June 2008, Félix Díaz then tested his form, in which he had been brought by the Cuban coach of the Dominican national boxing team Pedro Luis Díaz, at the Golden Belt tournament in Constanța, Romania . He proved his excellent form, because he won this tournament with an abandonment victory in the fourth round over Traian Lupu from Romania, an abandonment victory in the second round over Baqytschan Qoschabekow from Kazakhstan and a point victory over Alexander Ivanov from Russia .

At the Olympic Games in Beijing he won against Eduard Hambardzumjan from Armenia on points (11.4), then had a little luck in his next fight against John Joe Joyce from Ireland , because he won this fight with a tie of 11:11 only controversially by the counted Total number of hits. He then won over Morteza Sepahvandi from Iran on points (11: 6). Felix Diaz won his semi-final fight against Alexis Vastine from France under controversial circumstances with 12:10 points. Alexis Vastine and the French coaches accused the judges of having given Vastine an unjustified warning shortly before the end of the fight, which earned Felix Diaz two additional points and thus exactly the two point advantage with which he won the fight. In the final against the 2004 Olympic light welterweight champion Manus Boonjumnong from Thailand , Félix Díaz surprised the entire professional world, because he proved to be clearly superior to the experienced Boonjumnong and won the Olympic gold medal with a sure 12: 4 point victory.

After the Olympic Games in 2008, Felix Diaz switched to professional life.

professional

Díaz won his first twelve fights, six of them by knockout. However, there was no title fight among them.

International battles

• 2008 in Chattanooga, USA against Dom. Rep., Hw, point defeat against Daniel O'Connor (10:21)

Championships of the cathedral. Rep.

• 2007, Final Hw, points winner over Ricardo Garcia

swell

• Box Sport trade journal from 2002 to 2008,
• Website "www.amateur-boxing.strefa.pl",
• Website "sports123.com",
• "Results.bejing2008.cn" website