LAS VEGAS – Floyd Diaz seemed poised to deliver a quick knockout win in his hometown Thursday night.
The bantamweight prospect dropped Max Ornelas once apiece in the second and third rounds, but the Las Vegas residents went the eight-round distance on the Shakur Stevenson-Edwin De Los Santos undercard at T-Mobile Arena. Rather than taking out Ornelas early, Diaz barely kept his unblemished record intact by winning a split decision.
Judges Tim Cheatham (77-73) and Dave Moretti (78-72) scored their fight for Diaz, who improved to 10-0 (3 KOs). Judge Glenn Feldman scored their fight for Ornelas (15-2-1, 5 KOs), who got off the canvas twice to make it competitive.
Despite the scores, Ornelas seemed to need a knockout entering the final round to win.
Ornelas landed four punches in combination as Diaz tried to defend himself about 45 seconds into the eighth and final round. An accidental clash of heads initiated a brief break in the action with 59 seconds to go in the fight.
By then, Diaz had a knot beneath his right eye and Ornelas fought through a cut on the bridge of his nose.
Ornelas continued to make their fight competitive during the sixth and seventh rounds, when he mostly kept the action in the center of the ring and landed his fair share of punches.
A right hand by Diaz knocked Ornelas backward with about 50 seconds remaining in what was a competitive fifth round.
Ornelas landed two jarring right hands during a 20-second span during the final minute of the fourth round. Diaz wasn’t as effective offensively in those three minutes as he had been in either of the previous two rounds, during which he produced a knockdown apiece.
A short, left hook by Diaz dropped Ornelas for the second time in the fight, this time with about 1:10 to go in the third round. Ornelas again tried to fight out of the trouble and kept Diaz from hurting him again before the third round ended.
Diaz dropped Ornelas with a lead left hook in the opening minute of the second round. Ornelas got up pretty quickly and took the fight to Diaz to prevent his opponent from building on that momentum.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.