Although I'm from the UK, I saw a lot of Diaz's fights on tape delay here as ESPN's Friday night fights were shown on a terrestrial (free to view) channel here in the early hours so I used to record them all; pretty sure I've still got some fights of his somewhere. He was an all action, "gamer" of a fighter and I was very sorry to hear this on fightnews:
In tragic news, popular former welterweight contender Oscar “El Torito” Diaz passed away on Thursday at the age of 32 in San Antonio, Texas. Diaz, an exciting, all-action fighter with a career mark of 26-3 with 12 KOs, last fought in July 2008 against Delvin Rodriguez in an ESPN2-televised TKO loss. Diaz underwent brain surgery and spent months in a coma after that bout and never really recovered. According to the San Antonio Express-News, the cause of death was complications arising from pneumonia.
Listened to a random boxing podcast/radio show he was on the other day just to get some gist of who he was as its been awhile since that went down. Kinda sad to hear a guy talk about a future he never got to truly live or attempt to live. What happened to Oscar is why you'll almost never hear me downplaying a boxer on a personal level like some here are apt to do all day long. The risk you take getting in the ring isn't a thing most people can grasp with their cubicle 9-5 Monday thru Friday, BBQ on Saturday, sorta lifestyle. Respect to any person getting in the ring & putting it all on the line for a chance at something great even if that great thing is an internal thing & not a Floyd or Manny payday or a shiny belt.
Bad deal I remember watching this fight......at first I thought he was yelling at the ref then I saw his legs start to quiver and I knew something bad was happening. Sad news!!!!!!
